(INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — Hoosier leaders gathered Monday to highlight their latest legislative call for a solution to the nation’s ballooning debt — with the support of an influential right-wing policy group.

“We have become a model of fiscal responsibility, but we are vulnerable to the rapidly dissolving financial position of our country,” said Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, who leads a National Debt Crisis Task Force for the conservative State Financial Officers Foundation.

She backed House Resolution 28, recognizing the national debt as a national security threat and calling on Congress to establish “an effective regular order for budgeting.” The declaration comes a year after the Senate approved a similar effort, Senate Resolution 51.

Nieshalla recalled asking Jonathan Williams, the president and chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council, if there was “any way you could turn this … into a model resolution and get it passed in as many of the 50 states as possible?”

ALEC, which promotes model conservative legislation to state lawmakers, finalized the model last summer. Ten other states are weighing the resolution now, per Nieshalla.

“We’re so excited today to launch this national effort, from an ALEC perspective, to help educate the American people, and to state legislators across the country, (about) the dire state of affairs of our national debt and what can be done about it,” Williams said.

The state efforts were based off Gov. Mike Braun’s own U.S. Senate Resolution 600. It was agreed to in 2024, his last year in Congress.

“When I did that resolution, it has to be juxtaposed to the fact that, as a privilege motion, I took a bill to the Senate floor about balancing our budget over 10 years, not even including interest,” Braun said. “Every Democrat voted against it. One-third of the Republicans at the national level voted against it. What does that tell you?”

“This isn’t going to be solved willingly by the people that are running our country at any level,” Braun added. He said the debt fight was one reason he left the Capitol, “because it was like talking to the side of my barn back home.”

Voters approved a balanced budget amendment to the state constitution in 2018, after it passed two successive classes of the General Assembly. ALEC has also adopted that as a model.

“We think it’s the gold standard,” Williams said.

“Every year we have an honestly balanced budget, so we are leading the charge,” said Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger. She also serves as a state chair for ALEC.

“We’ve established the roadmap, so it’s time that we make America like Indiana,” she said to applause.

The news conference, held in at the Statehouse, prompted pushback.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, criticized his GOP colleagues for supporting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt by 2035.

“While Indiana Republicans offered lip service today about lowering the national debt, they have taken steps to import this fiscally irresponsible policy by bringing Indiana in line with the excessive cuts,” DeLaney said in a news release. “… Passing down a $52 trillion national debt to our children and grandchildren is irresponsible and unsustainable. Let’s get serious and prioritize popular programs that help Hoosiers instead of tax cuts for the mega-rich.”

He and other Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee supported the resolution Monday afternoon, however. It advanced to the floor unanimously.

Republicans on the committee did reject a Democratic amendment that would have educated students on how much the national debt increased, as expressed in both dollars and a percentage, during the term of each president.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Throughout the month of February, WISH-TV is celebrating Black History by sharing stories of remarkable African Americans who made great contributions to the Indianapolis community.

Mari Evans was an African American poet, writer, television host and professor who championed the Black Arts Movement in the Circle City.

Her face may be recognizable because her likeness appears on a larger than life mural painted on the side of a building at the corner of Mass Avenue and Michigan Street, signifying her dedication to Black culture in the city.

Her mission was always to depict African American life in Indianapolis, with themes of love, loss, liberation and faith.

Born in 1919 in Toledo, Ohio, Evans moved to Indianapolis in 1947 and made her home here. She became a prolific poet and writer, a musician and professor at Purdue and Indiana University. In later years, Evans produced, wrote and directed a show called “The Black Experience” on Indianapolis Public Television.

Evans died in Indianapolis on March 10, 2017, at the age of 97.

She was a champion of African-American culture in Indianapolis and beyond.

• The Indiana Senate is considering a bill that would totally eliminate Indiana’s child labor reporting system.
• Employers would no longer be required to register and track minors on their payroll.
• It’s the latest effort to roll back child labor protections in Indiana.

Indiana lawmakers are once again moving to weaken state child labor laws.

Recent changes to House Bill 1302 would do away with the Indiana Department of Labor’s Youth Employment System, a database where employers are required to register and track minors 17 years old and younger on their payroll.

Doing away with the system could make it more difficult to estimate just how many Hoosier youth are working across the state at any given time.

According to the most recent legislative fiscal note on the bill, “the change will likely reduce the efficiency of on-site employer inspections for compliance with child labor laws since employers will no longer have to indicate that they employ workers younger than 18.”

Revisit: Lawmakers Roll Back Protections Amid Rising Child Labor Safety Violations in Indiana

State Rep. Jake Teshka, R-New Liberty, the bill’s author, confirmed that the amendments go a lot further than the version of the bill passed by the House with a 92-0 vote on Jan. 28. That version made only a minor adjustment to the mandated reporting timeline for employers.

But amendments made in the Senate’s Pensions and Labor Committee strike all of the provisions about the database from state law. The changes repeal the mandate for the labor department to maintain the database, employer reporting requirements and penalties for failing to report and track teen workers.

Teshka said he was still gathering details about the new changes. The newer version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, will go to the full Senate on Feb. 16. It could get a straight up and down vote as early as Feb. 17. Rogers did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2024, Rogers, who owns a golf course that is registered to employ minors, cosponsored legislation that increased work hours for teens. She also put forth legislation to reduce the age at which teens can sell and serve alcohol in hotels and restaurants from 19 to 18. Both bills were signed into law.

Teshka said he’ll have an opportunity to concur or dissent to the changes if it passes the Senate. For now, he intends to have more conversations with people in the Department of Labor, industry and education to identify the best way forward.

Department of Labor attorney Brent Cullers told a House committee last month there were 40 violations for reporting requirements in 2025. Employers appealed half of them because of confusion over the timeline to report the employment status of their under 18 workers.

“We’ve heard from some employers of youth that they would maybe hire more, but the [reporting] program has actually become something that’s burdensome to them,” Teshka said Jan. 13.

The Youth Employment System launched in 2021. Prior to the database, schools certified a teen worker’s age and academic standing.

Current Indiana law requires employers to register in the database if they have at least five teens on payroll. The database contains the names, ages and hire dates of youth as well as the email addresses, number of minor employees, and the names of each registered employer. Employers who do not comply with the reporting requirement can face penalties up to $400 per infraction, per minor employee.