The state's 2025 tax law phases in cuts that hit local budgets hard. County government is projected to lose about $349,000 in 2026, growing to about $934,000 by 2028. Northeast Dubois schools stand to lose enough to nearly cancel the referendum their own voters approved. A tax cut that shows up as a longer ambulance response is not much of a win.

AES is building a large solar and battery storage project between Huntingburg and Holland. The battery system would be one of the largest in Indiana, and it sits within about two miles of Holland Elementary and the Southridge schools. Residents raised permit discrepancies and safety questions at public meetings through 2025 and 2026, and commissioners said the current ordinance gives the county little room to act. Construction was scheduled to begin in March 2026, with operation targeted for late 2027.

If you live near the site or send kids to those schools, I want to hear from you before I take a position on what the county should do next.

Most of unincorporated Dubois County has no zoning. The county's comprehensive plan was scheduled to reach its steering committee in August 2026, and the county's solar moratorium expires in December 2026. Corridors, solar, batteries, and data centers all come down to the same question: do the people who live here get a real say in what gets built next to them? I believe local control has to mean more than a formality.

Huntingburg's council is already debating how to regulate data centers and battery storage. A solar farm west of Huntingburg already sells its power to a data center campus in Fort Wayne under a long term contract. I am not against growth. I am against ordinary families paying higher bills to subsidize some of the largest companies on earth.

Memorial Hospital ran locally for about 75 years. Its ambulance service moved to Deaconess EMS in October 2024, and in August 2025 the hospital itself became Deaconess Memorial. Deaconess has promised major investment, and nothing here is an accusation. It is a question worth asking out loud: when decisions about local care move to a regional system, who speaks for Dubois County patients?

Dubois County unemployment was 2.1 percent in April 2026, near the lowest in Indiana. Employers here cannot find workers, and workers cannot find childcare or a house they can afford. By the county's own study, we need roughly 2,200 to 2,900 new homes by 2035. If we want the next generation to stay, this is the work.