Mental health is an issue affecting many individuals, families and communities. According to the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, approximately 22% of Hoosiers experience mental illness each year, and half with serious mental illness go untreated. That's why Indiana's new state budget allocates an additional $100 million for mental health resources. This new funding is being used to lay the groundwork to expand the number of certified community behavioral health clinics throughout Indiana and increase crisis response services, which is a Senate Republican priority.

Hoosiers should also be aware of the following resources.

• The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available by dialing 9-8-8, allows a caller to speak with a trained crisis specialist.
  
  
• BeWellIndiana is a free confidential resource to call if an individual is feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed or alone. Simply dial 2-1-1 to be connected to a crisis counselor.
  

SUPPORTING HEALTHY CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

There are countless community-based organizations throughout Indiana supporting children and parents to promote healthier, happier families. Our state budget provides financial support for some of these key organizations to continue doing good work on behalf of Hoosiers.

These include:

• Real Alternatives, which provides wraparound support to pregnant women and new mothers;
  
  
• The Nurse-Family Partnership, which provides nurse home visits to expectant mothers;
  
  
• All Pro Dad, which promotes responsible fatherhood; and
  
  
• The Indiana Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs.

The budget also funds important public programs like Safety PIN grants and My Healthy Baby, which recently began serving pregnant women in all 92 Indiana counties. Our budget also offers financial support to parents by expanding the income tax exemption for new dependents and continuing to fund an adoption tax credit.

An increasing number of businesses have access to Americans' personal information, while data breaches and cybersecurity threats continue to grow. In 2022 alone, the Indiana's Office of the Attorney General collected over 1,200 security breaches in Indiana.

SEA 5, a caucus priority, creates a "bill of rights" for Hoosier data privacy that allows consumers the right to protect, correct and delete their data with many companies doing business in Indiana.

Indiana law requires businesses to alert consumers about security breaches that have placed their personal information in jeopardy. SEA 5 can help Hoosiers protect themselves before a breach even occurs. 

INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE

Indiana's new state budget increases funding for K-12 education by $2.9 billion over the next two years. Here are some of the key changes included within that $2.9 billion increase.

• Public schools can no longer charge families for textbooks and other curricular materials, saving Hoosier parents hundreds of dollars per year.
  
  
• Under the school funding formula, schools are seeing increased per-child funding for every student they teach, with targeted increases for special-education students and high schoolers enrolled in high-wage, high-demand vocational courses.
  
  
• Under HEA 1591 from the 2023 session, school districts must spend at least 62% of their state tuition support funding on teacher pay and benefits. Teacher salaries will be locally bargained under the new budget until later this fall, and we should see school districts raising pay and/or increasing benefits for their teachers.
  
  
• The state provided an extra $700 million to pay down the unfunded liability for our largest teachers' retirement pension fund. This move is a win-win for retired teachers and all taxpayers. By putting an extra $700 million toward this fund, we are moving up the date for when the pension will be fully funded, showing that Indiana is keeping its financial promises to teachers and ensuring Hoosier taxpayers won't be on the hook for this pension liability years into the future.
  
  
• The budget provides an $11 million increase for Secured School Safety Grants, which help school districts cover a wide array of safety-related costs.
  

While property tax rates are set by local government officials, not the Indiana General Assembly, it is important to make sure Indiana's tax system is working fairly for Hoosiers. During the recent legislative session, I supported several new laws to help reform our state's property tax system.

• One new law gives counties the option to limit how much property taxes can increase from year to year for moderate-income homeowners who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years. The goal is to help homeowners who bought an affordable home on a fixed income years ago, and the home value has increased substantially over time.
  
  
• HEA 1499 temporarily increases the supplemental homestead deduction for the next two years and lowers the cap on how much property-tax revenue can grow. If home values continue to remain at the current elevated levels, this will help reduce the tax burden for Hoosier homeowners in 2024 and 2025. Based on current circumstances, it's estimated this change will save homeowners $110 million statewide next year compared to what they would pay without this new law.
  
  
• That same new law also expands eligibility for the property-tax deduction and property-tax credit for senior-citizen homeowners. Indiana law allows eligible senior citizens to deduct up to $14,000 of their home's value from property taxation and caps the annual growth of their property-tax bills at 2%. To receive these benefits, a senior must be on a fixed income. HEA 1499 allows the income limit for these benefits to grow every year based on the cost-of-living increase for Social Security, to help seniors who initially qualify not lose eligibility as their retirement income grows.
  
  
• SEA 325 will reduce property-tax bills for outbuildings and improvements on a person's homestead property, such as decks, patios, gazebos and pools. These structures will now be subject to a lower property-tax cap, and many taxpayers will be able to apply the homestead deduction to these structures.
  
  
• Another new law makes the property-tax appeals process more taxpayer-friendly by saying that if you appeal your home's assessment, the assessed value of your property cannot go up as a result of the appeal. In other words, if you successfully appeal, your assessment will go down. But if your appeal fails, the worst-case scenario would be your assessment stays at the amount you initially challenged.