Rep. Maureen Bauer

South Bend Tribune

AI-assisted summary Indiana’s state budget cuts funding for a firefighter PFAS biomonitoring program despite its proven success and modest cost.

New legislation reduces local government funding, impacting fire departments and other public safety agencies.

These cuts will lead to reduced resources, delayed equipment upgrades and potentially longer emergency response times.

This legislative session, Indiana followed Washington, D.C.’s worst instincts of cutting vital public safety protections while claiming fiscal responsibility. Firefighters across our state are now more vulnerable.

In 2023, I authored legislation making Indiana the first state in the nation to fund a PFAS biomonitoring pilot program to test firefighters’ blood for dangerous, man-made chemicals. These “forever chemicals,” found in gear and firefighting foam, are linked to cancer, infertility and long-term illness. Cancer remains the leading cause of line-of-duty death in the fire service.

We had momentum. Indiana banned aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) in fire training exercises. We launched a disposal program that safely removed over 48,000 gallons of toxic foam from firehouses statewide. Over 1,000 firefighters voluntarily signed up for the PFAS pilot, eager to better understand their risk and protect their health. The bipartisan commitment to their safety was clear.

Viewpoint: Firefighters protect us, time for Hoosiers to return the favor

Then came this legislative session.

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Despite the overwhelming interest and modest $200,000 price tag, funding for the biomonitoring program was gutted in House Bill 1001, now law, the state budget. The decision is more than disappointing: it’s dangerous. Indiana firefighters will now be left without essential health services, even as their risks remain high and growing.

To make matters worse, lawmakers also passed Senate Bill 1, which is now law. Marketed as a tax cut, the bill effectively shrinks the revenue base that funds local governments, fire departments, police and public safety agencies. In cities like South Bend, that means a projected 20% loss in property tax revenue by 2028, according to local officials.

What does that look like on the ground? It means delayed equipment upgrades, frozen firefighter positions, longer emergency response times, and fewer resources for fire prevention and training.

Firefighters in South Bend and across Indiana are now being asked to do more with less — work without long-term health monitoring, rely on shrinking budgets, and shoulder the risks while the state steps away. This is truly a devastating reversal of progress, and one that shifts the burden from the state to cities without providing the tools or funding to manage it.

This is not fiscal responsibility. It’s cost-shifting wrapped in slogans. And it betrays the very people who put their lives on the line to protect us.

In a state that once led the nation in firefighter safety, we’ve chosen to step back when we should be stepping up. When did fiscally conservative Indiana get so broke that we can’t afford $200,000 for firefighter cancer prevention?

In a reckless new era of “cut now, justify never,” Indiana chose fiscal theater over service. And the people paying the price are the very ones who show up for us in our most helpless moments.

Let me be clear: this wasn’t a bloated program. It wasn’t wasteful spending. It was a voluntary, data-driven initiative to provide lifesaving information to those who risk their lives to protect ours. You don’t get more fiscally responsible, or more morally urgent, than that.

The truth is this isn’t about money. Indiana is spending hundreds of millions on new programs, tax breaks and out-of-state contracts. But when it came time to fund something with bipartisan support and proven public health value, firefighters were told to wait.

They shouldn’t have to.

I’ve worked alongside families and colleagues who lost loved ones to cancer to pass this legislation in their honor. I’ve testified, advocated, and negotiated across the aisle to reverse the rising tide of cancer diagnoses in the fire service. Yet now, despite the program’s launch in 2023 with bipartisan support, this budget leaves it without a dime of continued funding.

That commitment wasn’t just forgotten. It was abandoned through budget choices and policies that weaken public safety across the board.

We had a chance to continue leading nationally on cancer prevention in the fire service. Instead, we’re sending firefighters back into the fire without answers, without data, and without the tools they need to protect themselves and their communities.

Public safety is about more than budgets and press conferences. When the public is looking to their elected leaders to “Be Bold,” those running our state are cutting and running. If we can find room for new tax breaks and corporate incentives, we can certainly find room to protect the people who protect us.

Hoosiers deserve better than empty rhetoric. They deserve leaders who back public safety with action, not empty promises.

State Rep. Maureen Bauer (D-South Bend) represents District 6.

Contributing Columnist

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

I’m no first-rate intellect, but I’m going to do my best to keep functioning anyway, as I try to consider two opposing ideas about how change happens as equally true.

The case for incrementalism

In many of the circles I find myself in these days, it’s become fashionable to call for bold action. We say things like, “We can’t afford to take small steps,” or “This is a time for urgency and big swings.” The thing to be avoided at all costs is “technocratic incrementalism,” the idea of tackling big problems with small, steady efforts.

I’ve said these things. I’ve meant them. Honestly, I still do. But I also believe something else, which sits uncomfortably alongside that belief: Incrementalism is often the best we can realistically do, in a policy world rife with compromises and trade-offs.

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I offer this tension as a frame for thinking about Indiana’s latest legislative session, especially as it relates to mental health. I began my time as an Indy Star contributor with a piece urging lawmakers to keep their promises and fully fund the overhaul of Indiana’s mental health system that began in 2023. I used all the adjectives of the “bold or bust” movement: words like “historic” and “transformational.”

If we’re grading on the scale of sweeping change and radical reinvention, then the answer to the question “Did legislators keep their promises?” is “no.” This session did not deliver a grand leap forward for mental health.

But I’d argue that it was a win, all the same.

Winning by not losing

In a session marked by a $2.4 billion revenue shortfall and cuts to many high-priority initiatives, the new funding that was secured for mental health last budget session (an additional $50 million annually to build the new system) was not cut.

That may not sound like a big win, but I’m counting it as a meaningful step forward. We didn’t get the long-term, sustainable funding that advocates and providers were pushing for, but we did preserve the opportunity to keep building, and early signs suggest that it’s already paying off. Sources tell me that Indiana’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic pilot sites are significantly improving access to care, reaching more people and closing some longstanding gaps.

The work is far from done. Gaps will remain, and people will still fall through them. But if we continue to build smartly and collaboratively, measure what’s working, and keep making the case for investment, we’ll have another shot at lasting change in two years.

Legislative leaders compared this budget environment to the aftermath of the Great Recession, when former Gov. Mitch Daniels and the legislature gutted most of the Indiana human services field, including mental health. The damage from that earlier era is something the field is only now recovering from. Through that lens, just holding ground this year is no small thing. In a landscape full of hard choices, we protected our progress.

And that’s not all.

Indiana will pursue promising mental health treatment

Buried deep in the budget bill is something that might prove to be more than incremental. The legislature appropriated new funding for further study of psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health and substance use disorder.

Full disclosure: I’m a convert. I could bore you with studies, like the one where two-thirds of veterans with PTSD no longer met the criteria for the disorder after undergoing psychedelic-assisted therapy. It’s not yet a gold-standard, fully approved treatment, but it is incredibly promising.

Studies are important, but stories of changed lives are what matter. Consider the story of Colts player Braden Smith, who bravely shared his own mental health journey in IndyStar. He found healing through psychedelic therapy, but he had to go to Mexico to do it. Thanks to this new funding, future Braden Smiths might be able to get help closer to home.

Indiana is a notoriously temperamentally conservative state (we haven’t even legalized medical cannabis), and we just took a significant step toward exploring psychedelic mental health treatment. That is something close to miraculous.

I’ve been (and will continue to be) critical of our leaders when it’s warranted. There is plenty in this budget, or about this session, that I don’t like. I’ll keep being critical when it is called for.

It is important, however, to give credit where it’s due. When future Hoosiers look back at mental health in the 2025 session, they might not see the transformational change that some hoped for, but they will see that the legislature preserved hard-won progress, and maybe took a surprising bold step forward too.

Jay Chaudhary is the former director of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction and chair of the Indiana Behavioral Health Commission. He writes the Substack,Favorable Thriving Conditions.

Muncie Star Press

AI-assisted summary Indiana’s 2025 legislative session, specifically Senate Bill 1, offered property tax cuts for residents and significant cuts for businesses.

While providing modest relief to some homeowners, the bill is projected to lead to substantial income tax increases and job losses due to automation.

The author argues that the opportunity cost of the property tax cuts was the potential for progress in lowering healthcare expenses for Hoosiers.

Indiana’s 2025 legislative session offered a valuable pair of economic lessons. The first is that there are no perfectly good or bad policies, only trade-offs. The second is that the cost of anything is measured by what you relinquish to obtain it: its opportunity cost.

Indiana’s property tax gifted me with a new, and pristine, example of both lessons.

The session began with Senate Bill 1, a version of Gov. Mike Braun’s property tax cuts. This legislation, which I’ve described before, provides modest tax cuts to about half of Hoosier families — and less than $300 per year for that lucky half. It also provided the largest business tax cuts in state history by exempting business personal property tax payments and eliminating the 30% floor on depreciated tax payments.

I’ve already described how this bill will result in large income tax increases, probably in the range of $1,250 for the typical family. The unhappiness of this trade-off should be increasingly obvious to many folks (see Hicks: I am confused by Indiana’s tax proposals). But that isn’t the big lesson. The bigger lesson is what these business tax cuts do to employment in today’s tariff-burdened economy.

Before the April 2 tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, taxes on Indiana’s manufacturing firms, and their imported goods, was roughly $2.76 billion (in 2023). That was the fourth-lowest rate in the country. After the tariffs, that tax jumps an astonishing $22.37 billion.

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The cost of producing anything is much higher, maybe 15% for a Hoosier automobile. This leaves Hoosier firms with a dilemma. Most businesses will raise prices, cut production, reduce staff and see lower profits — the side effects of a recession. Nearly all manufacturers will do that in the short run.

Over the long run, they can onshore production of the tariffed products, but that costs money. In fact, the reason the product was imported in the first place is that someone else can produce it more efficiently. So, that leaves them with a more expensive product that fewer Americans will buy — and is less profitable.

But, vanishingly few businesses will make capital expenditure decisions under the Trump tariff regime. Who knows what they’ll be in an hour or so, and capex decisions are long-term, multi-year choices. Congress will remove these tariffs; the only question is how bad the pain will be before it does.

In the meantime, Indiana’s business property tax cuts give businesses a good, reliable, high-probability opportunity to remain profitable without worrying about tariffs. You see, the goal is to cut production costs to remain competitive. Why bother fixing tariffs, which will go away, when the legislature slashed your property taxes?

Before this legislative session, a business investing $1 billion would have a 25-year personal property tax liability of about $221.4 million. That’s among the lowest in the country, but it is still a big number. With abatements, the cost would drop to about $86.6 million over 25 years.

Under Indiana’s new property tax law, that tax liability drops from $221.4 million to $122.5 million — and, with tax abatements, to effectively zero.

The quickest and easiest way for a business to cut its long-term production costs is to automate its workforce. Manufacturing labor accounts for roughly 39% of manufacturing costs, but in an automated factory they’d be down to under 5%. There’s no risk that such a move will backfire once tariffs are cut.

This decision has benefits and costs. The labor share of production will drop, and the capital share will spike. This flows more business revenue to owners: individuals, retirement accounts and pension funds. It will also grow demand for electrical and mechanical engineers, workers with advanced training in manufacturing technology, as well as AI developers.

It will trim far, far more jobs than it’ll create. We’ll see substantial declines in traditional factory employment (which already are highly, but not fully, automated). This will cut demand for labor in factories across the state and reduce local income tax revenues because there will be fewer jobs for fewer workers.

We may be on the cusp of a hyper-automation wave.

That is a good lesson on trade-offs. We economists have plenty of examples of these, but what about opportunity costs? Senate Enrolled Act 1 will take Indiana from the seventh-lowest residential property tax state to, well, uhm, the seventh-lowest residential property tax state. But we pay the fourth-highest share of our family budget on hospitals — a whopping $2,356 per family more than the average American household.

That’s the opportunity cost lesson.

What if Senate Bill 1 addressed the hospital monopolization that is strangling Hoosier families? What if, instead of spending a long and tedious budget session struggling to find piddling property tax savings, we focused on reversing two decades of hospital monopolization? What might we have achieved?

If Indiana’s elected leaders had spent the session working through antitrust enforcement, they might have made some progress. If they hadn’t been distracted by an anti-tax hysteria, which made some sense 25 years ago, they might have made progress on health care.

Let’s just imagine what would’ve happened if they’d passed legislation that moves us from paying a whopping 10.5% of the average household budget on hospitals to 9.5%. That would have saved the average Hoosier family $1,081 this year.

It bears repeating that SEA 1 isn’t all good or bad, just like any legislation. There are winners and losers. Business owners, including stockholders, are big winners. The losers are people who earn income, whose taxes are going to be more than offset by income tax increases, or who lose their jobs to new labor-saving capital investment.

The opportunity cost to fixing a problem we didn’t really have was that we failed to fully address a much larger, more imminent and far more fixable problem that has festered for years: monopolized hospitals.

That’s what happens when you react to know-nothing candidates and radio show hosts for your public policy agenda.

This is also why, in every economics class, from high school to the doctoral level, we remind students of two things. First, every policy has trade-offs. Second, that the cost of everything is what you give up to get it. In this case, the cost was real progress on our worsening hospital monopolies.

Michael J. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.

David Henry

Guest columnist

AI-assisted summary Indiana Senate Bill 1, while offering modest property tax relief, shifts the tax burden from wealthy property owners to working families and renters.

Renters, comprising over 60% of Bloomington’s population, are unlikely to see any benefit and may face rising rents.

Senate Bill 1, the property tax overhaul relished by Gov. Mike Braun, may seem like a win for Indiana homeowners. But for Monroe County — and for many Hoosiers — it’s the beginning of a troubling shift that threatens our public schools, essential services, and economic fairness.

Pushed through by the Republican supermajority, SB1 promises modest property tax relief. But behind the headlines is a deeper cost — a $40 million bite out of your services. This bill shifts tax burdens away from wealthy property owners and toward working families and renters.

SB1 offers a mere average of $300 in annual savings for property owners. Yet, in Bloomington, renters are over 60% of the population. Those local Hoosiers aren’t guaranteed any trickle-down relief. Without rent control or tenant protections, property tax cuts won’t reduce housing costs. In fact, rents may continue to rise — pushed by inflation and profit incentives.

Meanwhile, local governments are left to fill the revenue gap. SB1 allows counties and cities to raise local income taxes to make up some lost property tax revenue, simply shifting the burden — from property owners to wage earners. That’s a bum deal for people already living paycheck to paycheck.

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In Monroe County, the consequences are real. With much of our land held by the state, the university, or federal forests — all of it untaxable — we’re always expected to do more with less. That isn’t new. But thanks to Braun, your quality of life is at risk. Public health, social services, transportation and infrastructure will face budget cuts.

Suggesting new services, like county-funded EMS, will be impossible without raising taxes. The sheriff’s office, courts, jail, and criminal justice system already make up over 60% of the county budget. These cuts aren’t just difficult — they are dangerous. When local Republicans demand “law and order” — don’t believe it. They just supported defunding the very services they claim to support.

SB1 proponents argue the bill promotes a business-friendly climate. But Indiana already ranks among the most favorable states for business, thanks to low corporate taxes and tax incentives. What’s missing is care for working families. Take the elimination of business property tax on new equipment — it’s a windfall for companies, including the governor’s.

These savings aren’t trickling down to workers. They’re feathering beds with your quality of life.

It may be shocking to some, but government costs money. Public services suffer the same inflation and tariff taxes that you do. And when we cut this deep, it hurts more than it helps. This isn’t sustainable. And it isn’t fair.

But Hoosiers can respond. Next time you hit a pothole, remember to join your county officials and hold state leaders accountable for who made it harder to fix. With the 2026 midterms on the horizon: demand better. Demand leaders fight for balanced tax policy that supports strong communities — not just corporate coffers. Watch who speaks up. And vote for them.

In the face of market volatility and needless tariffs, we need tax relief. Taxation is imperfect, but county government has long been funded by the idea that property is serviced by county offices — safety, roads, and surveying and recording of deeds.

Tax relief should be thoughtfully aimed at those who are truly struggling — not pitting retirees against workers. And certainly not appeasing a governor’s tax cut temper tantrum without figuring out the consequences first.

David G. Henry is a Monroe County Council member at-large. He resides in Van Buren Township.

Special to the Courier & Press

Could you imagine if Democrats touted property tax relief with an average of $100 property tax savings a year and created a universal voucher program at a time there was a $2.4 billion revenue forecast shortfall? It would rightfully raise eyebrows.

But that’s exactly what the Indiana Republican supermajority is doing.

At a time when families are feeling the squeeze of inflation, property tax spikes and the rising cost of living, the Legislature had an opportunity to put forward a people-first budget and property tax reform bill. Instead, the majority prioritized short-term wins and expensive ideological projects, while Democrats put forward a responsible, compassionate roadmap to real relief and long-term stability.

We deserve a path forward that:

Improves access to safe, quality and affordable housing options. This includes taking care of the unhoused, renters and increasing home ownership. Criminalizing vulnerable persons, as has been proposed this session, only leads to jail overcrowding, which ultimately burdens taxpayers and public safety authorities.

Focuses on strengthening Indiana’s PreK-12 public school system to meet the needs and demands of families and our economy. This includes reimagining the Department of Child Services (DCS) and its relationship with schools to best serve kids and families. Developing young Hoosiers into healthy, productive and innovative adults should be our top priority. Our economy will one day soon rely on a new generation of workers. We must invest in them now.

Embraces new Americans who choose to call Indiana home. Seventy percent of our economic growth is fueled by migrants. Rural, urban and suburban communities have all seen growth. This should be seen as a positive addition to our state’s economy and not a strain on our systems.

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Democrats offered a common sense budget that prioritizes everyday Hoosiers. We focused on fully funding public schools and increasing teacher pay, so that students and educators have the support they need to thrive. We made sure families wouldn’t have to wait for basic health services by eliminating Medicaid wait lists and protecting those services from potential federal cuts.

Our budget plan also included practical tax relief, such as putting more money back in people’s pockets through a larger earned income tax credit and increased support for renters. We proposed a low-interest homebuyer program to help more Hoosiers achieve homeownership and investments in public health programs that actually improve lives, from prenatal care to lead screening.

And we didn’t forget about quality of life − supporting our veterans, protecting public land and making sure kids across Indiana could get free books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

We even planned for the future, creating safeguards to protect critical services from federal budget cuts.

This is what responsible governance looks like − planning ahead, protecting the most vulnerable and investing in the future of our state. We can’t tax our way to prosperity, but we also can’t cut our way to a better future.

The Indiana legislature should properly plan and invest in the most important resource − its people. There is a lot of uncertainty, but this is the time the government should be working for the people to ensure that every Hoosier can thrive.

Our budget should reflect our values: community, opportunity and a belief that every Hoosier deserves a shot at a better life.

Alex Burton (D-Evansville) is a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.