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First, ending Indiana's rigged electric system. While Hoosiers were paying $28 more every month — the biggest jump in twenty years — utility companies were writing checks to the legislators who voted to mandate expensive coal over cheaper natural gas. Second, eliminating Indiana's 1,008 township governments, a nineteenth-century layer that duplicates county services and has been used to embezzle public funds. Both require the political will to take on entrenched interests that fund most legislative campaigns. I spent twenty-six years in the private sector, never on a government payroll, and I am not accepting money from the insiders trying to rig the system for their benefit at our expense.
Twenty-six years as a network administrator and CAD technician in the private sector, same small business, paycheck earned entirely outside government. My wife, three children, and six grandchildren all live in Indiana. I know what it feels like when property taxes, electric bills, and health costs all rise faster than our paychecks while monopolies and government answer to no one but themselves. I am not a politician. I am a frustrated Hoosier who has watched state government ignore working families for decades while taking care of insiders. I built a six-point contract with documented proof that each reform has worked in another state. I am not guessing. I am not promising. I am committing, in writing, to six things I will fight for.
The fastest way to lower costs is to stop punishing people for doing the right thing. Indiana taxes homeowners for improving their property. Electric utilities shifted infrastructure costs onto residential ratepayers while charging data centers less for the same grid. Hospitals hide behind a nonprofit label while earning profits larger than the Gilded Age robber barons, shielded by special tax status that price transparency alone cannot fix. End the property tax on residential improvements. Repeal the coal mandates. End special tax treatment for all hospitals, expand health savings accounts, and let market competition do what monopoly protection prevents. Real affordability means one set of rules for everyone.
Property taxes. No matter where you are in life, property tax is the bill that never stops, rising faster than paychecks and faster than most families can absorb. One reason is that connected corporations negotiate abatements that artificially reduce their tax burden for years, leaving homeowners to carry a larger share in the meantime. Indiana also taxes everything homeowners build on their own property, meaning every improvement triggers a higher bill. End the abatements. Tax the land, not the improvements families paid for with their own sweat and savings. A homeowner who fixes their roof should be rewarded, not punished. No new program, no new spending, just one set of rules for everyone.
Indiana's most significant environmental challenge is hiding on every electric bill and in every coal ash pond sitting next to a river. Laws mandated burning coal, charged customers before plants produced power, and now block stricter cleanup of toxic ash threatening drinking water. Each law unjustly transferred risk from Big Coal and utility monopolies onto ratepayers who had no choice. Indiana fell from 4th to 28th in electricity affordability as a result. End the mandates that delay retirement of outdated, toxic, and more expensive fuels. When the market works, cheaper and cleaner fuels like natural gas win on their own merits.
Indiana families are not a subsidy program for trillion-dollar technology companies. A data center that requires new substations or grid upgrades should fund that infrastructure itself, not bury the cost in ratepayer bills. Beyond grid costs, proposals should be evaluated on water consumption, grid demand, and impact on farming operations. No special tax incentives. No abatements. No arrangements unavailable to small businesses and homeowners. One set of rules for everyone. If that is not enough to attract a data center, it was never a good deal for Hoosiers to begin with.
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robstiles77@gmail.com
My two highest priorities would be property tax reform and financial literacy school standards. No one should be taxed out of their home or off the family farm. I also support housing affordability incentives and strengthening career and trades education. I'm pro-life and pro-second amendment. I strongly support small business, farmers (my grandpa was one), first responders (my son is a former deputy sheriff), and limited, accountable government.
I'm a Christian husband, father, and grandfather. I have specific goals to accomplish with the determination and discipline to deliver results to make Hoosier lives better. I will take action, not merely hold a seat. I'm the only candidate who currently lives in Johnson County and also has lived in Plainfield for high school. I understand the unique perspectives of all three counties in District 57. My experience in business and nonprofits helps me understand business needs as well as helping people facing strong life challenges.
Electric rates have risen higher than inflation in the last two years (e.g. AES), and that's not right. We need to ensure stable utility rates relative to user needs. I would look at cutting red tape for building permits to increase supply. I'm a firm believer that if we want to cut housing prices, we need to increase supply. Home loan rates are higher now due to the policies of the Federal Reserve. Hopefully, mortgage rates will come down this summer as leadership at the Fed changes in May.
Education is a major portion of the state budget and a high priority for me. I want taxpayers and students to get the best education opportunities we can provide. Reading fundamentals begin with teaching phonics with teacher competency. We need to ensure that phonics education is happening with excellence. Financial literacy also needs specific state standards with adequate teacher training so that students achieve competency, and not merely an unfunded requirement. If kids can read and learn how to mange their money, more Hoosiers will not need state assistance to get by; more will become self-sufficient and lead fulfilling lives.
Farmers are concerned about water availability, and Agriculture remains Indiana's number one industry. I would ensure appropriate environmental community standards, while promoting environmentally safe growth.
Artificial intelligence is a lucrative industry, and data center companies should pay for their own added electrical and water needs. Hoosier residents and farmers should NOT be saddled with the costs for increased demand for electricity and water for new data centers. The state should closely regulate new power supplies for data centers that balance the needs of the community with new data centers. President Trump has also called for data centers to pay for their added electrical needs.
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