Aragorn in Indiana

Boilermaker. Dad. Former newspaper guy. Unofficial property tax expert. You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

If you smoke a pack a day, Indiana's new cigarette tax will cost you $2 a day, $730 per year.

If you quit smoking, you'll save ~$10.70 per day, $3,905 per year.

Quitting is hard, but there's resources to help. Good for your health. Good for your wallet.
https://t.co/2JfgZWaut2

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Wait until he checks the voter history of the Republican governor of Indiana in the 2000s

[Jacob Stewart @jstewartIndy]

David Shelton, who is running for Indiana Secretary of State as a Republican, voted in the 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 Democratic primaries.

Blythe Potter, who is running as a Democrat, voted in the 2008 Republican primary.

I just cannot imagine Shelton having to decide whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton was going to save the country, or Potter having to decide whether John McCain or Ron Paul would lead the GOP to victory.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Solid analysis

[reason @reason]

A property tax break for senior citizens was proposed by @NancyMace, but @ericboehm87 explains why this is just bad policy.

Read more: https://t.co/olMg1ghhr4

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

The ongoing gas tax holiday is like saving money by skipping going to the dentist.

You can maybe get away with it in the short term, but you're likely to face a larger cost of that neglected maintenance further down the line.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Is EA gonna change it to the lovely Hammond, Indiana skyline?

[Polymarket Football @PolymarketBlitz]

This is tough. 🔥

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

About 8M gallons of gasoline are sold across Indiana per day.
The suspended gas tax is 62.5 cents per gallon.
Through July 7, this will cost the state another ~$170M in revenue.
https://t.co/K0cqTuliQ6

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

"That’s voters in a one-party county trying to have some say in who actually governs them"

But the whole point of redistricting and closed primaries etc. is to make the transition from "some say" to "no say" for 70% of the state.

[Abdul-Hakim Shabazz @AttyAbdul]

"Closed primaries" may sound good, but that's all they do. https://t.co/R7VmHVgyAr

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Wait, I thought foreign companies paid the tariffs? 🤔

[Bloomberg @business]

The White House says it will reduce tariffs on agricultural equipment, such as combines and harvesters, in order to reduce costs for US farmers and manufacturers https://t.co/137tQ9lai7

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

To be fair, the General Assembly has been pushing ALL counties hard to adopt more vehicle surtaxes and wheel taxes to fund local road repairs for years now.

[James Briggs @JamesEBriggs]

Legislative Republicans have explicitly told Indianapolis to raise taxes to fund roadwork. That's been the play for years. There is nothing ambiguous about it.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@bumpermanofindy @HicksCBER Every business who got their personal property tax depreciation floor removed (so instead of a min 30%, it can now depreciate to $0 taxable valuable) as well as all those benefiting from the de minimis increase (no tax on first X value) to $2M, previously $80,000.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Nice weather has all the gray hairs out around town in their mid-life crisis sports cars today 😄

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@TurdFerg1989 Yeah, you can only (legally) claim a homestead deduction on one property so you could tie it to that.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

A less bad (but still bad) proposal if you wanted to give seniors property tax relief would be to freeze assessments when a homeowner hits 65, so their tax bill would remain stable long-term.

That would have a cost associated with it, but much smaller than a full exemption.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Love the matchup against Tennessee. Purdue has played TN four times since 2017 and all of the games have been bangers, including the two tourney matchups in 2019 and 2024.

[Purdue Men's Basketball @BoilerBall]

The non-con is here.

👉 Games with Gonzaga, Iowa State, Tennessee, Oklahoma, DePaul.
👉 Indy Classic TBA.
👉 Two more EXH games planned.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

Solves the "I'm on a fixed income so I can't afford these tax increases" while also making sure you still pay at least something toward the community services you utilize.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@AMB8471 So everyone claims (without evidence)

But hey, collecting less will somehow suddenly make roads better!

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

"BuT INdiAnA roADs cAn'T GEt anY WOrSe!!"

[WANE 15 @wane15]

According to Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s Head of Petroleum Analysis, Indiana is currently losing out on an estimated $5 million per day for road funding. https://t.co/A8ZoumrdQR

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@aarond23 @Hereforbeer2025 100%

Targeted relief to people who actually need it is great, i.e. low-income seniors.

But there's no justification for guys like Mike Braun not having to pay taxes.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

There are 1.96M housing units in Indiana.
737K of them (37.5%) of them don't carry a mortgage.
The median home value in IN is $243,500.
A 1% tax cap on that value is $2435 per year.
So if every no-mortgage house was the median price, this proposal would cost $1.79B per year.

[Jacob Stewart @jstewartIndy]

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun wants to eliminate property taxes for seniors and those who have paid off their mortgage.

This is the same state government that removed tax relief for first time homeowners in a property tax bill last year because it would have allegedly harmed local schools.

Yet under this proposal, Braun would pay zero dollars in property taxes on his huge, nearly 10,000 square foot home with hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer-funded improvements.

The hypocrisy & hatred of young adults here is insane.

It’s incredibly anti-family.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@MaryAHoosier Because of tax caps, increasing deductions won't do anything.q

If you're way over the cap, even if they dropped your taxable AV several tens of thousands, you'll still be over the cap, so your annual bill will remain the same.

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@danieloleary_do @HicksCBER 😆 Yup

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

@Chris1boomers Yes, it's the lost revenue to local government, which provides services to the community

[Aragorn in Indiana @DadInFW]

This would also be proportionally more damaging to rural communities which have a higher percentage of older residents.

And since this would slash the residential tax base, tax rates will jump sharply meaning all those farmers will inherit the expense at their 2% farmland cap.

[Niki Kelly @nkellyIN]

Braun eyes property tax for breaks for seniors, assessment changes

https://t.co/X3SP8KsF9r