Here’s the second edition of the Capitol Watch. Jen and I discuss Monroe Gray, Mike Pence and FSSA Privatization/Modernization. We also give our “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” for the week.

Well I’m not actually on the road but I was on the street this afternoon. Here are a few tidbits to tide you over.

• Republican Presidential contender John McCain has a new support group. They call themselves Indiana Veterans for John McCain. They say McCain will do a better job fighting the war on terror than Democratic challenger Barack Obama. They dismiss polls showing a close race in Indiana between the two candidates, saying Hoosiers will choose McCain over Obama, in part, because of his proven leadership and dedication to his country.
• Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita has put out new figures on mortgage broker compliance in Indiana. 361 brokers have lost their license for failing to comply with new state rules requiring brokers be licensed and each mortgage office have a principal manage to supervise office affair and be held accountable. More than 500 are either compliant or pending approval. 143 have surrendered their licenses.
• Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s ethics proposal will finally get a hearing tomorrow night. It’s been in front of the Council since February. It appears there will end up being two different sets of ethics rules, one for employees of the Mayor and the other for the Council. Details to follow.

That’s all for now.

There is an editorial in the Indianapolis Star today advocating limits on campaign contributions.  The argument is that limits, along with full disclosure, will even the playing field and give financially-disadvantaged candidates a better shot at competing.

I have to respectfully disagree with my friends and 300 N. Pennsylvania Avenue.  While I firmly believe in full disclosure, I am not a big fan of limits on campaign contributions.

You should be able to give as much as you want and as many times as you want to the candidate and cause of your choice.  In addition, the politician you give money to should disclose every dime in a timely manner or face a stiff penalty, say half the contribution amount.  It may sound a bit draconian, but it’s the price you pay for a free society.

If a candidate can’t find anyone to support his or her ideas then maybe the candidate needs to go back and rethink their message or strategy.  And remember, money doesn’t guarantee victory, just look at the last Mayor’s race in Indianapolis.

Limiting speech is never good a democracy.  I also think voters are smart enough to realize that if one candidate is getting all his cash from one source (say himself) they will take that into account.  If not,  that’s their own fault for being disengaged.

As the old saying goes, money is the mother’s milk of politics; and skim milk is disgusting.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels this afternoon called for the state to return money to the taxpayers as long as certain conditions were met.

Speaking to the Downtown Rotary Club of Indianapolis, Daniels said when state revenues exceed a certain amount needed to fund government and maintain a necessary fund balance, then the rest should be given back to Hoosiers in the form of a credit on their income taxes.

Although Jill Long Thompson called for a somewhat similar plan, under her plan the surplus would be used for towards the sales tax on gasoline.

Daniels says his plan is responsible because it would make sure the state paid its bills and did not keep more money than necessary.

A Greenwood homeowner’s association has voted to keep sex offenders out of their sub-divison.  They passed a ban on sex offenders taking up residence in the sub-division as well as anyone who is convicted of a crime that would qualify them as a sex offender would have to move.

While similiar bans have withstood legal challenges (sex offenders are not a protected class), the homeowners are really lulling themselves into a  false sense of security if they think this ban will protect their children.

Contrary to popular opinion most sex offenders and their victims are not strangers.  According to the U.S. Justice Department it is a blatant myth that most sexual assaults are committed by strangers. The Department found that nearly 60 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls who are sexually victimized are done so by someone known to the child or the child’s family. So if your child is going to come into contact with a sex offender it will probably be a relative, family friend, babysitter, someone in a position of authority over the child or someone who supervises the child. Forget the stranger with candy and the raincoat.  If that’s not enough, here are some other fun little facts.

Most sex offenders are not caught, convicted and in prison. Only a fraction of those who commit sexual assault are caught and convicted. In addition, up to half of all cases of child molestation are committed by other adolescents between the ages of 13 to 17. There are some more stats I could throw at you, but I figure I’ve scared you enough.

If the homeowners really want to protect their children, they may want to start by doing a check of the people around them.  Like the data says, it’s probably not the guy down the street who’s more likely to molest your child, but the one you’ve already allowed into your home.

I’m putting a call into the Marion County Juvenile Justice to try to get some answers as to how two 14-year old twins managed to be arrested 14 times and still end up back on the streets to commit another crime.

In the meanwhile, State Representative Phil Hinkle is proposing stepping up the punishment for parents whose children violate the law while on home detention.

The first offense would be a ticket.  The second offense would get you community service and the third offense would land the parent in jail for a week.

The law would also try any juvenile as an adult whose been adjudicated more than six times in a two year period.

This may seem rough, but we have to start somewhere.

By now everybody knows Indianapolis is going through some pretty tough financial times right now, or do they?

You would think with the city facing a $26 million shortfall and potential $200 million deficit in 2012, every elected official would want to do their part to keep costs down.   You would think.  Although a number of county agencies have cut back their budgets, someone did not get that memo in the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.

MCSD apparently submitted a budget request that went from $85 million to $111 million, a $26 million increase.

From what I’ve been able to gather the increase was to go towards the department’s road division, motorcycle division, sex offender tracking, warrant division and new cars.  They also want to hire at least 50 people to guard the city-county building.

In addition sources with MCSD tell me the department did not budget for raises or salary increases and now those financial chickens are coming home to roost as well.

When Anderson submitted his budget request, sources say it was sent back.  I hope they told him “do not pass go, do not collect $200.”

The sheriff’s core responsibilities are overseeing the jail, building security and warrants.  It seems to me that spending $26 million on cars and motorcycles is just someone trying to stay relevant at the taxpayer’s expense.

I’m heading out of town today, but there are a few items to look out for next week.

• Look out for some potentially embarrassing information to come out regarding the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.
• Look out for the Marion County Juvenile Justice system to explain how two 14-year old twins involved in the robbery of DOn’s Guns got arrested 12 times this year and ended up back on the street.
• Look out for City-County Council Republicans to finally get off the dime and get an ethics proposal (which has been sitting around since February) on their agenda.
• And speaking of ethics, look for City-County Council Democrats to fight any censure of Monroe Gray.

See you next week.

If you haven’t seen RTV 6’s “Capital Watch” yet, here it is.

More to come.