Doug Eckerty (Taxpayer Friendly)

Watchdog Indiana Home Page Indiana General Assembly & Governor Ratings Legislative Voting Record

Address: 10200 W. River Rd., Yorktown, IN 47396
Phone: (765) 744-6364
E-mail: gdeckerty@comcast.net; S26@in.gov  
Website: http://www.in.gov/legislative/senate_republicans/homepages/s26/index.htm; http://dougeckerty.com/  

2013 General Assembly Voting Record
Voted YES on House Bill 1001, which is Taxpayer Friendly because the 2013-15 state budget makes better use of the existing state Gasoline Tax and state Sales Tax revenues from gasoline purchases with NO NEW TRANSPORTATION TAX INCREASES to increase transportation funding for INDOT by 11%, cities and towns by 34%, and counties by 23%.
Voted YES on House Bill 1011, which is Taxpayer Friendly because construction of a costly light rail transportation system cannot be approved by a new central Indiana transit district before March 14, 2014.
DID NOT VOTE on House Bill 1313, which is Taxpayer Friendly because it (1) supports the establishment of a 2013 interim committee to study local government regulation of  residential leases and (2) prohibits a local government from adopting regulations for landlord licensing, mandatory landlord classes, and rental inspection and registration fees until July 1, 2014.
Voted YES on Senate Bill 319, which is Taxpayer Friendly because it prevents a significant shift of the property tax burden to farm working families by (1) using the current soil productivity factors until 2015 and (2) requiring the Department of Local Government Finance to confer with the College of Agriculture of Purdue University and submit a 2013 interim study committee report on soil productivity factors.
Voted YES on Senate Bill 389, which was Taxpayer UNfriendly because it created the possibility for a minority of county income tax council members representing a minority of the county population to impose a county-wide motor vehicle excise surtax and wheel tax. 

2012 General Assembly Voting Record
Voted YES on House Bill 1003, which is Taxpayer Friendly because (1) public access to government meetings and records is improved and (2) it is less likely that public agencies will intentionally violate the Public Access Laws.
Voted YES on House Bill 1005, which contains six Taxpayer Friendly local government Conflict Of Interest provisions and sixteen Taxpayer Friendly local government Nepotism provisions.
Voted YES on House Bill 1376, which is Taxpayer UNfriendly because (1) the automatic taxpayer refund excess reserves trigger is increased from 10% to 12.5% and (2) Hoosier working families will possibly receive an automatic taxpayer refund every even-numbered year instead of every year.
Voted YES on Senate Bill 25, which was Taxpayer Friendly because (if it had passed the House) much improved oversight would have been provided for redevelopment commissions and departments.

2011 General Assembly Voting Record
Voted YES on House Bill 1001, which includes among its 16 Taxpayer Friendly state budget provisions no tax increases and an operating surplus in both the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years with a satisfactory reserve balance on June 30, 2013.
Voted YES on House Bill 1002, which is Taxpayer Friendly because (1) charter schools have the potential to help increase the academic growth of lower socioeconomic students, (2) the number of Indiana nonprofit private colleges and universities authorized to create charter schools is limited, (3) the Indianapolis mayor is the only Indiana mayor who may authorize charter schools, (4) conversion from a public school to a charter school is sufficiently stringent, and (5) property taxes are NOT improperly used to support charter schools.
Voted YES on House Bill 1003, which uses state K-12 tuition support money to fund scholarships for nonpublic school students and is Taxpayer UNfriendly because (1) nonpublic private and parochial schools are not equally open to all children, (2) nonpublic school budgets are not approved by a directly elected public body, (3) evidence-based research does not support greater school choice as a means to achieve overall educational improvement, (4) it is very likely unconstitutional, and (5) state tuition support dollars would go to nonpublic schools that are not uniformly distributed throughout the state.
Voted YES on House Bill 1022, which would have implemented a number of Taxpayer Friendly local government provisions related to nepotism and officeholder conflict-of-interest.
Voted YES on House Bill 1074, which provides that school board members selected by election must be elected at November general elections and is Taxpayer Friendly because the greater voter turnout in general elections will make it more difficult for local vested interests to unduly influence school board elections.

Watchdog Indiana Candidate Questions - November 2, 2010, General Election
1. QUESTION: Do you support or oppose the November 2, 2010, Constitutional Amendment to (a) make the 1% - 2% - 3% property tax caps permanent and (b) protect homestead property tax deductions from legal challenge? ANSWER: FULLY SUPPORT.
2. QUESTION: How should the 2012-2013 state budget be balanced? Please address such issues as Medicaid spending, K-12 education, the possibility of a statewide income tax increase, and whether reserve funds should be replenished. ANSWER: My first choice is to make further cuts to higher education......not k-12. Mayoral elections should be shifted to normal election cycles ...saving $22 million every four years. Next, do away with township government and trustees or at the very least consolidate them to half their current numbers.
3. QUESTION: Do you pledge to maintain both the Homestead Standard Deduction and the Homestead Supplemental Deduction without ANY change to help homeowners control their property tax burden? ANSWER: I can live with no changes to the current assessment system. However, the entire assessment system must be addressed ASAP to avoid falling into the same old trap........CAPS do us no good if assessments run wild. It is entirely possible that we may see 10% inflation or more again.......which would put us back in the same bad position with property taxes.
4. QUESTION: Do you support changing the Indiana Code so approval of the General Assembly is required before I-69 becomes a toll road between I-64 and Martinsville? ANSWER: Yes, the General Assembly should have the final vote. I would even go for a voter referendum on this issue.
5. QUESTION: Do you wish to make some additional comments about your candidacy? ANSWER: Thank you for allowing me to participate in this survey.

Watchdog Indiana Candidate Questions - May 4, 2010, Primary Election
1. QUESTION: Do you support or oppose the Constitutional Amendment on the November 2, 2010, statewide ballot? ANSWER: I fully support placing property tax caps into the constitution.....without any reservation.
2. QUESTION: How should the 2012-2013 state budget be balanced? ANSWER: With respect to Medicaid. Currently in Indiana Medicaid accounts for 13% of the states budget. With unemployment likely to continue at historic levels we will continue to see a surge in Medicare enrollment. My understanding is that the states share of Medicaid funding is Federally mandated (another unfunded mandate from our friends in Washington). Bottom line is that it appears little we can do as a state to avoid this enrollment surge. We will have to continue to cut aggressively in other places in the budget as well as shift priorities. Changing mayoral elections to the even years will save the state $22 M every four years ....and the elimination of one entire layer of local government is a must. I could go on but time does not permit.
3. QUESTION: Do you pledge to maintain both the Homestead Standard Deduction and the Homestead Supplemental Deduction without ANY change? ANSWER: I fully support retaining the standard homestead supplemental deductions...........but also feel we need to go further to place some sort of CAP in place for overall property assessments. If we don't CAP assessments then Property Tax CAPS will become meaningless at some point and property tax payers will be victimized once again.
4. QUESTION: Do you support changing the Indiana Code so approval of the General Assembly is required before I-69 becomes a toll road between I-64 and Martinsville? ANSWER: I'm not in favor of setting up any toll roads
5. QUESTION: Do you wish to make some additional comments about your candidacy? ANSWER: Property tax CAPS are critical to Indiana's future and especially the creation and retention of jobs. Ball State University just released an economic impact study assessing the impact property tax caps will have on jobs in Indiana. Their findings were that property tax caps will likely produce 97,000 jobs in Indiana as well as stimulate wealth creation for homeowners. If you wish to research my credentials further please feel free to contact Chris Hiatt of the CDCPTR in Muncie. Chris knows me well. Feel free to contact me at anytime:

Watchdog Indiana Home Page Indiana General Assembly & Governor Ratings Legislative Voting Record

This page was last updated on 04/29/13 .