As the 2025 Indiana General Assembly budget session comes to a close, Hoosier veterans are watching closely. We’re taking note not only of what passed and what didn’t, but how it all unfolded.
This session brought minimal progress for Indiana’s veterans. Some long overdue improvements made it through, but far too many priorities were ignored, watered down or outright rejected.
What we gained:
Expanded life insurance for Indiana National Guard Members: A long-overdue increase in coverage —from $8,000 to $20,000 — for those who die while serving on state active duty orders.
Modernization of charitable gaming: Veteran service organizations can now use electronic pull-tabs and apply revenues more flexibly — so long as it’s legal. This modernization was decades in the making.
Veteran benefit business oversight: Businesses assisting veterans with their benefits must now be accredited and required to inform veterans of the free services available to them.
Formal recognition of new military branches: The Indiana Code now recognizes the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps — making their income exempt from state tax.
These are meaningful steps, but they pale in comparison to the support veterans deserve and the issues left unaddressed.
What we lost or never got:
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: Despite its potential to save lives, especially for veterans with TBI and PTSD, the proposed HBOT program failed to advance.
Remission of Fees: Still no restoration of tuition remission for children of disabled veterans, a benefit stripped away in 2011 and still not returned.
Reserve component education benefits: Once again, Indiana’s Reserve forces were left behind, with no state-funded education support.
Veterans Affairs trust fund misuse: We stopped a House attempt to raid the Veterans Affairs Trust Fund of $1.25 million annually for a state program only to see the Senate reinsert the same provision. The Military Family Relief Fund, funded by Hoosiers to support veterans in need, is being quietly siphoned off to fund state agency advertising. Up to 10% of the fund is taken each year, despite the agency already having a communications staff and outside marketing firm on payroll.
That same agency also blocked a bill that would have allowed disabled veterans to access HBOT through the fund. Veterans were denied critical care and a bureaucracy won out. That’s not supporting veterans, that’s exploiting them.
Property taxes (diluting a promise): In 1975, Indiana honored disabled veterans with a property tax deduction of $24,950 — when the average home cost just $39,000. An additional $14,000 was granted for the totally disabled. Many paid little to no property taxes as a result. It was a tangible, targeted acknowledgment of their sacrifice.
Fast forward to 2025: In an attempt to address broader property tax issues, the General Assembly proposed folding veterans into a general tax credit system.
Under the original plan: All homeowners would get a $300 credit. Disabled veterans would receive an additional $250. Those over 62 or totally disabled would get another $150. However, those over 62 and totally disabled would be excluded from the Senior credit entirely.
This was not a continuation of the original benefit, it was a replacement that undermined it. Veterans spoke out. The Indiana American Legion issued a call to action. The Military Veterans Coalition of Indiana mobilized. On the final day of session, lawmakers reversed course and reinstated the original property tax deduction for disabled veterans.
While that correction matters, it shouldn’t be viewed as a win. It was a fix for a mistake that should never have been made and it still leaves the deduction unchanged from 50 years ago. No adjustment for inflation. No reflection of today’s housing market. Just the bare minimum to maintain appearances.
Changing who qualifies for veteran benefits in Indiana: Also in the final hours of session, lawmakers inserted language into a conference report that fundamentally alters who is eligible for benefits in Indiana throughout the Indiana Code from a bill that didn’t make it through the process. Anywhere the law previously required an honorable discharge, it now reads anything other than dishonorable. This opens the door to eligibility for those with bad conduct and other than honorable discharges. To manage this, the Indiana Veterans Commission is tasked with reviewing DD-214 discharge codes which the Department of Defense stopped publicly sharing in 2022.
This is a bureaucratic workaround to a problem that shouldn’t exist. The longstanding definition of a veteran, one who earned benefits through honorable service is being rewritten without adequate oversight or public input. Benefits come with honorable service. Period. Rewriting that standard isn’t equity, it’s erasure.
Veterans are watching. This session proved that vigilance is necessary. When legislators tried to undermine or redirect hard-earned benefits, veterans stood up, spoke out, and pushed back. And we’re not done.
Hoosier veterans live to fight another day. And fight we will.
Lisa Wilken is a United States Air Force veteran who has received a Torchbearer Award from the State of Indiana’s Women’s Commission for her advocacy and trailblazing for women in Indiana. Wilken was inducted into the Indiana Military Veterans Hall of Fame for her successful efforts for veterans in Indiana.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Hoosier veterans paying attention to legislative wins, losses | Opinion
Reporting by Lisa Wilken / South Bend Tribune
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