Watchdog Indiana Home Page

Watchdog Indiana provides information about the revenues, spending, and long-term debt assumption of Indiana local and state governments. An online community is established where Hoosiers come together voluntarily to help encourage our state and local governments better respond to the needs of working families. 

Watchdog Indiana is a non-profit, non-connected, and non-party advocate for good government that focuses on the state and local tax burden of Hoosier working families.
Watchdog Indiana was founded by Aaron Smith on November 14, 2001.

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To receive Watchdog Indiana E-mail Updates, put SUBSCRIBE and your county of residence in the subject line of your E-mail sent to taxless3@comcast.net. There are currently Hoosiers in 78 counties who receive E-mail Updates. Since November 14, 2001, 248 general distribution E-mail Updates have been sent. NOTE: Watchdog Indiana does NOT sell or give its E-mail Address Book to anyone!

2012 Watchdog Indiana Legislative Agenda
Click on the link above for full information regarding the agenda items listed below.
1. K-12 Education Reform
Homework Enhances Learning Potential.
Third Grade Best Practices Inventory Report.
2. Local Government Reform
House Bill 1005 Nepotism and Conflict Of Interest: Taxpayer Friendly.
House Bill 1254 Township Reorganization: Taxpayer Friendly.
Senate Bill 110 County Government Issues: Taxpayer UNfriendly.
Senate Bill 170 Nepotism and Conflict Of Interest: Taxpayer Friendly.
Township Government Reform.
3. State Budget
House Bill 1376 Automatic Refundable Taxpayer Credit: Taxpayer Friendly.
Senate Bill 143 Automatic Taxpayer Refund: Taxpayer UNfriendly.
Indiana Gas Tax Reform Plan to Better Use Indiana Gasoline Tax Dollars.
4. Other Significant Legislation
House Bill 1001 Employee's Right to Work: Taxpayer Neutral.
House Bill 1073 Public Mass Transportation: Taxpayer UNfriendly.
House Bill 1093 Public Access: Taxpayer Friendly.
House Bill 1132 Controlled Projects: Taxpayer UNfriendly.
Senate Bill 25 Redevelopment Commissions and Authorities: Taxpayer Friendly.

Immediate action needed!
01/22/2012: Please ACT NOW and contact your State Senator to let him or her know what you think of Indiana Senate Bill 110, Indiana Senate Bill 143 and Indiana Senate Bill 170. Information on how to identify and contact your General Assembly public servants can be found online at http://www.finplaneducation.net/general_assembly_ratings.htm.

SB 110 is Taxpayer UNfriendly and needs to be improved to allow the following two changes in county government: (a) retain the three-member board of commissioners as the county executive only and (b) remove the legislative powers and duties from the county board of commissioners and assign them to the seven-member county council so the county council could carry out both the legislative and fiscal powers and duties of the county.

SB 170 is Taxpayer Friendly because it would implement Conflict Of Interest and Nepotism requirements for our county, city, town, and township units of local government.

Detailed information about SB 143 and SB 170 and their Watchdog Indiana analyses can be found online at http://www.finplaneducation.net/2012_legislative_agenda.htm.

Did You Know?
01/25/2012: Most Hoosiers mistakenly believe that all our Indiana Gasoline Tax dollars go directly to the construction and maintenance of our streets, roads, and highways. However, only 12.8 cents of our 18 cents per gallon Gasoline Tax is used today to meet our transportation needs. 

The Indiana Gas Tax Reform Plan to Better Use Indiana Gasoline Tax Dollars uses 15.1 cents of our Gasoline Tax to directly meet our transportation needs. If the plan had been implemented in 2011, the State Highway Fund would have been almost unchanged at $1.0224 billion and transportation funding to counties would have increased 39% from $282.7 million to $393.9 million. Cities and towns transportation funding would have increased 40% from $90.6 million to $126.8 million.

The key component of the Watchdog Indiana plan is moving the $144.4 million State Police budget from the Motor Vehicle Highway Account to the state General Fund. The state can afford to do this because a $1.7016 billion reserve balance is anticipated in its General Fund on June 30, 2013.

Please help promote the Gas Tax Reform Plan to make better use of our Indiana gasoline tax dollars! 

Hot Topics.

UPDATED! Indiana General Assembly & Governor Ratings: Watchdog Indiana provides the only ratings of state legislators and the governor based on how their votes on key legislative proposals from 2002 to the present affect the state and local tax burden of Hoosier working families.

Who Are Your Elected Officials: You can enter your address or click on a map to see a list of all your elected official - local, state, federal - in one place. All information on this site is maintained by your local county circuit court clerk's office in conjunction with the Indiana Secretary of State's office.

Stop Local Option Waste (SLOW): The SLOW webpage summarizes by county the actions that Hoosier fiscal patriots have taken to stop the wasteful spending of our hard-earned federal tax dollars on unnecessary nice-to-have local projects that do not address high-priority needs. Everyday citizens must provide the leadership needed to overpower the single-interest advocates whose cumulative efforts enable the Congressional gridlock that fosters ruinous federal deficit spending.

Third Grade Best Practices Practices Inventory Report: Nine "Best Practices" have been identified from the Best Practices data provided by some Principals of the Indiana elementary schools that were among the Third Grade Spring 2010 ISTEP+ Results Leaders. These improvement ideas will be helpful to those Hoosiers concerned about K-12 public education.

Homework Enhances Learning Potential (the H.E.L.P. program): The willingness of parents and other concerned community members to form effective partnerships with their public school professionals can be identified by tabulating weekly the percent of students in every Indiana Grade 1, 2 and 3 public school whose meaningful homework was effectively supervised by a homework partner every day they attended school. When a community uses all its resources to provide homework partners, the community sends a clear message every day to its First, Second, and Third Grade Students that education is highly valued. These Students are more likely to receive a good education with a minimal reliance on costly and ineffective remediation. The importance of the preferred H.E.L.P. legislation is emphasized when one realizes that almost 25,000 Hoosier children every year are condemned to a second-class education before they reach the fourth grade. There are many evidence-based reasons to support the preferred H.E.L.P. legislation.

Indiana's Cash For College: Updated annually in the lead-up to Indiana's March 10 financial aid deadline, Cash for College works to equip students and families with the practical steps needed to plan and pay for college. Indiana's Cash for College Campaign is made possible by Learn More Indiana, a partnership of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development and the State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana.

Indiana Transparency Portal: This one-stop online portal for state government information provides easy access to all state contracts, employee salaries, an interactive budget section, revenue data, state debt authority overview, financial statements for both local governments and state government, performance information, and recovery and reinvestment act information.

2008 House Bill 1001: Thanks to the November 2, 2010 passage of the Constitutional Amendment, this comprehensive property tax relief bill makes the state and local tax burden of Hoosier working families more fair and affordable by moving away from property taxes to sales and income taxes.

Jeff Thompson Property Tax Replacement Plan: In addition to using variable local option income taxes to replace the revenue lost to property tax caps, House Bill 1056 gives every local taxing unit the option of providing a 100% property tax credit for their working families. As shown by Accurate Property Tax Math, the average Hoosier working family spent 4.1% of their state taxable income to pay their 2006 property tax. The Jeff Thompson Property Tax Replacement Plan Impact is a real eye-opener!

Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network: If you or someone you know is behind on the mortgage, or even in danger of falling behind, please contact the IFPN, a statewide program to provide free mortgage foreclosure counseling and education to at-risk homeowners. All Network services are free, and all Network counselors are certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. 

IHCDA University: The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority has a free online course to educate prospective homebuyers on the home purchasing process.

Township Government Reform: Watchdog Indiana has developed a position on township government reform that includes placing the public question "Shall the township government be retained?" on the ballot in every county.

Townships Database: Look up your township to see how much tax money it collected for aid to the poor, how much it spent, and how many people it helped. Township government cash balances statewide increased from $207 million in 2007 to $294 million in 2009 while 91,983 fewer Hoosiers received direct emergency assistance.

Lobbyists and the Legislature: How much do lobbyists spend? Which lawmakers accept gifts from lobbyists? The Indianapolis Star has established a searchable database of Indiana General Assembly lobbyist spending for the reporting periods from May 2009 through April 2010.

INvest.in.gov: Indiana has established a website to help Hoosiers determine how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds will be distributed in Indiana and what kinds of projects and programs are eligible for the funds. 

Watchdog Indiana Topics Index
Click here for access to the various Watchdog Indiana web pages related to 25 different topic areas.

You Can Help.
Listed below are several ways you can help control Indiana taxes and spending.

Bookmark this website so you can easily visit Watchdog Indiana often to help learn about state cash revenues, cash spending, and long-term debt assumption.

Suggest projects for Watchdog Indiana to adopt. Please send an E-mail if you know of something that needs the attention of Watchdog Indiana.

Register to vote.

Visit the Indiana General Assembly & Governor Ratings for a candidate's rating when voting for State Representatives and State Senators.

E-mail to the Editor of your local newspaper a letter or opinion article about state cash revenues, cash spending, and long-term debt assumption. Use Letters To The Editor Via E-mail to find the E-mail address of the Editor of your local newspaper.

Use the Local Government Factfinding List to understand and influence the revenues, spending, and long-term debt assumption decisions of your local government.

Make a monetary contribution to Watchdog Indiana. Contributions will be used to help publicize the positions taken by Watchdog Indiana. Watchdog Indiana is established as a non-profit, non-connected, and non-party political action committee (see WINPAC) so contributors will be protected by the bookkeeping and reporting requirements of Indiana's Election Division. All Watchdog Indiana monetary contributions and expenditures can be found online at the Indiana Campaign Finance Database. Watchdog Indiana contributions are not tax deductible. Send an E-mail for the mailing address if you wish to make a monetary contribution to Watchdog Indiana. 

Establish a local Watchdog chapter for your local government. See the Constitution And Bylaws for organizational details. Watchdog Lebanon is an example of a local Watchdog chapter.

Please send an E-mail telling what you think about Watchdog Indiana or anything else that comes to mind. Your comments, suggestions, problems, complaints, praise, and opinions are welcome.

This page was last updated on 01/27/12.