This Tax Day, Hoosiers are seeing the One Big Beautiful Bill at work

By ELISE NIESHALLA
Guest Columnist

As Hoosiers filed their 2025 tax returns this month, many noticed welcomed changes on their forms. The One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), signed into law last July 4, is now putting real dollars back into the pockets of families across Indiana.

From my desk at the Statehouse, where our office manages the state’s accounting, distributes tax revenues, and compiles Indiana’s annual financial report, I see how federal tax policy ripples through our state and every community. What we need is a federal government that defends us, provide a secure border, is trustworthy with taxpayer dollars, and encourages work, investment, and innovation right here at home.

The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on all these fronts.

This is the first filing where Hoosiers who earn tips or overtime will see new deductions, both from the federal and state government. From waiters in Terre Haute to nurses pulling extra shifts in Fort Wayne – they will keep more of what they earn. Seniors on fixed incomes will benefit from an enhanced deduction that eliminates a portion of tax on their Social Security. And for parents, there is an expanded Child Tax Credit and the new Trump Accounts that provide a powerful financial boost for investing in their children’s futures, leveraging the benefits of compounding interest from very early on.

Importantly, it also includes $1.6 trillion in federal spending reductions, driven largely by reforms to Medicaid. By implementing work requirements for able-bodied adults and tightening eligibility standards, the program’s growth is slowed and refocuses resources on the most needy, a provision for which Senator Jim Banks pushed hard.

In addition, immediate expensing for research and development carries on, which has been a priority of Senator Todd Young’s, so companies from advanced manufacturers to ag-tech startups can invest in innovation that protects our national security and keeps America ahead of our foes.

Included in these accomplishments, the BBB also invests in increased border security and military modernization, in addition to further commonsense reforms that root out waste in government assistance programs.

As a mom of four and a fiscal hawk, I do wish this legislation had gone further on the structural fiscal reforms our nation desperately needs with $39 trillion in rapidly escalating debt. As Chair of the National Debt Crisis Task Force for State Financial Officers Foundation, we will keep building a movement of support from the states for Congress and the President to chart our path forward to a balanced budget and a debt burden that is manageable. That work is urgent and must include restructuring Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, so that for the long-term, those programs will be viable for the most vulnerable – especially with insolvency coming in the 2030s.

On this Tax Day, it’s good to highlight the positive changes for Hoosiers through the One Big Beautiful Bill, while also setting our sights on the honorable, honest, hard work before our country.

Now, in our country’s 250th anniversary year, is time to have the big, beautiful, and necessary American family discussion about how, with renewed resolve, we restore our nation’s fiscal solvency.

Elise Nieshalla serves as the Indiana State Comptroller.