Veterans Cemeteries

If you are in the Indiana National Guard or are a reservist, you potentially wouldn’t meet the qualifications to be buried in a federal veterans cemetery. Only a member of the U.S. armed forces who has been on active duty and has anything other than a dishonorable discharge are currently approved.

The five state’s veterans cemeteries follow federal guidelines. But House Bill 1056, authored by Rep. Randall Frye R-Greensburg, seeks to change that and make guardsmen eligible.

Jim Byerly, vice president and legislative director of the Military Veterans Coalition of Indiana, spoke in support of the bill Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and the Military.

“This [bill] also applies to reservists of all services because, in some cases, a member can join the reserves and not qualify under the federal laws to be a full veteran because they’ve not been activated for enough consecutive days,” said Byerly, a retired brigadier general of 32 years.

The bill, which already has passed the House, was approved by the committee and and now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Income Tax

House Bill 1034, also authored by Frye, would exempt active-duty members from paying state income tax. Currently, the state exempts only the National Guard and reservists. Being out of the country or in another state, military service members aren’t using Indiana services anyway, supporters of the bill argued.

Frye says Indiana isn’t losing as much revenue as it is citizens. Many service members are claiming their home states as Texas, Tennessee and Florida, which already have the income tax exemption.

“These are our best citizens, these are our brightest citizens, and citizens when they’re finished with their military service, we want them back in Indiana,” he said.

Currently, there are 28 states that exempt state income tax.

Margret Robb, an appeals court judge and mother of a son in the Navy for 18 years, discussed how this bill would help families meet their economic needs.

“For every person that leaves this state and leaves its residency, we lose more money than just exempting this income. We lose taxes, we lose spousal income, we lose them in our census, and

there is federal money that depends on who lives here. These people don’t come back. We want them to come back. We want them to stay as Indiana residents,” she said.

U.S. Army Reserve ambassador and retired Commanding General James L. Bauerle said Indiana loses about 3,400 veterans annually.

According to the Geographic Distribution of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Expenditures (GDX), Indiana lost 17.9% of its veteran population between 2013 and 2021. Comparing Indiana to eight neighboring states reveals that Indiana ranks behind all others except Illinois for retaining veterans.

Indiana ranked 46th in 2021 in benefits paid as a percent of the total veteran population. Only Delaware, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey rank below Indiana.

“This bill not only brings some financial relief, as many are still recovering from the pandemic, but sincerity and respect to the Hoosiers in uniform,” Sgt. sergeant Major Allen Thomas, first vice president of the National Guard Association of Indiana, said,

The bill passed the committee 8-0.

Court Martials

The final bill proposed to the committee and passed Tuesday was House Bill 1076, authored by Rep Chris Jeter, R- Fishers, which could eliminate a guardsman’s current right to request a court martial.

Military personnel don’t use the civilian court system. Court martials are court proceedings that involve serious criminal offenses, normally of felony caliber.

“The current law is only the governor can call for a court martial,” said Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis said in support of the bill. “ I hope you appreciate the governor’s probably not and shouldn’t be involved in that kind of day-to-day operations. The men and women behind me should be, and the commanding officer should be, and they need to have good order and discipline in their ranks.”

If the legislation passes, Adjutant General Lyles would be granted the authority to initiate military trials of serious offenses, referred to as courts-martial. Currently, only Gov. Eric Holcomb has this power, although Lyles has previously informed legislators that Holcomb has not called any such trials in the last three years.

Freeman said law and order in the current system is not being conducted in an efficient way.

“The fact of the matter is if a service member today asked for a court martial, they’re probably not ever going to get it anyway, and the thing is dismissed, which doesn’t lead to good law and order in the ranks because there’s not the time nor is there the resources,” he said.

When asked if the troops had an opinion on the bill, The Adjutant General of Indiana, Maj. Gen. Lyles said, “There have been lots of comments. Now what I want to make clear is, you know, the military is not a democracy. However, we have a military decision-making process of our own.”

Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, asked Lyles how many court-martials have been called this year. Lyles replied none. Hunley then asked about how many court-martials have been requested. Again, Major General Lyles replied, “None to my knowledge.”

Hunley said, “So then by taking away what our ranking Guards members view as a right, by taking away this right, I’m wondering what administrative problem we’re actually solving if no one is requesting and court martials aren’t happening.”

Lyles said he was concerned about “the potential for a problem.”

The bill narrowly passed 4 to 3.