Sen. Deery Shares Update

It’s easy to forget that Indiana’s fiscal situation was once bleak and unstable. At the start of 2005, Indiana had not had a balanced budget in eight years, and the deficit was nearly $800 million.

But decades of strong fiscal leadership transformed our state’s bottom line. Since 2005, Indiana has had balanced budgets, shrinking state debt, and still room for multiple tax reductions.

One major priority for Senate Republicans has been paying down our largest unfunded pension liability, the Pre-1996 Teachers Retirement Fund. That obligation is now on track to be fully stabilized by 2030, freeing up to $1 billion annually for other state priorities.

Unfortunately, the federal government is moving in the opposite direction. The national debt now exceeds $38.6 trillion, including roughly $8 trillion owed to foreign investors including more than $1 trillion to Chinese interests. This trajectory threatens our national security, weakens our economy, and creates uncertainty for states like Indiana that depend on federal partnership.

Indiana cannot control Washington’s spending decisions, and as a state senator, I typically speak out only on matters directly within the state government’s responsibility. But in this case, the threat to Hoosiers is severe enough that I believe state lawmakers like myself should be pressuring our federal lawmakers to act more responsibly.

That is why I co-authored Senate Resolution 51, recognizing the urgency of the federal debt crisis and its threat to national security. This week, I joined Gov. Mike Braun, Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, Treasurer Daniel Elliott and fellow legislators at a press conference in support of a similar resolution in the Indiana House. The longer the federal government waits to act, the harder it will be on all of us when we are forced to fix the issue. Please join me in urging Congress to start to run its budget more like Indiana runs ours.