Well, I went and did it. I panhandled in in downtown Indianapolis on Friday for a couple hours. It was an interesting experiment to say the least. Let me share my story.

I didn’t go the the total “bum” look. I just wore clothes, that for me were very dressed down. I had my change cup. It was one I got from Victory Field so I could help promote the city with my experiment. And the coroner I chose to shake my cup and ask for change was Washington and Meridian. I chose it not only because it was a very busy intersection, but it was the volunteer headquarters for Barack Obama. Insert your own joke here about asking for change.

I held up my sign (I had four made and would rotate. Each had a clever message about change) and waited for the money to come rolling in. I made it a point to obey the law. I stayed away from banks and ATMs. I never asked anyone directly for cash. I just stood there and smiled. I didn’t go near the street, nor next to another panhandler.

I started panhandling at 11:55 a.m. I had the first bit of change come in at 11:58. A lot of people walked by and didn’t want to make eye contact. The ones that did and read the sign would smile, but the real smart ones got the whole joke about someone standing by Barack Obama’s office and asking for change. They were the ones who dropped the coins in the cup.

I ran into IMPD police chief Mike Spears while begging and he and I were chatting about what I was doing and people still dropped change in the cup. Despite the fact there was the chief and another officer there. Mayor Greg Ballard and Dr. Woody Myers both stopped by. The Mayor gave me a quarter; Dr. Myers, two cents. One his staffers later brought me a beer in a paper bag, which I did not drink until I got to my downtown place.

One person asked me what I was going to do with the money, I told him buy alcohol and tobacco (actually a martini and cigar) and give the rest to charity.* He told he was impressed with my honesty and entrepreneurial spirit and gave me a couple bucks. Even some of the downtown panhandlers who walked by were impressed by my operation.

By the time I was done I managed to collect about $30; most of it came between noon and one. $30 for two hours worth of begging wasn’t bad coinage. I made $15 an hour which is slightly less than the average paying job in Indiana. The way I figured it out, if I converted that cash into a real job I either made the equivalent of $31,000 annually in pre-tax income or $44,000 a year if that was my after tax income. Nice work if you can get it.

I now understand why people panhandle, there’s money in it. I was shocked by how much money you can make if this is all you do. Granted some days will be better than others, but if you beg between the hours of 7-9, 11-1 and 4-6, find the right corner of town you can rake in a lot of tax free money. I’m not even counting big convention events.

But despite all that the real culprits in the panhandling scam are us, the givers. If we didn’t give, the panhandlers would go away. It’s like why Willie Sutton robbed banks, it because that’s where the money was. Why do people beg downtown? Because that’s where we give them money. The city is starting a new anti-panhandling program encouraging the public to give to charity instead of beggars. I agree.

If more people gave to charity and none to the beggars this problem would all but vanish overnight. And I could spend my Friday afternoons at the Columbia Club, instead of standing on a corner asking for change.

*Editor’s note: I am not keeping the money I raised. It’s going to the Wheeler Mission on Monday. They could use it a lot more than me.

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton swung through Indianapolis this morning taking swipes at China and Barack Obama.   Hillary visited the Allison Transmission plant on the city’s west side touting it as a good example of the American economy being tied to American defense.

She took aim at what she called the outsourcing of America’s security by having parts of America’s defense systems being manufactured overseas, China in particular.   She said as President she would make sure that parts necessary to America’s defense were made in America.

Clinton also took aim at remarks made by rival Barack Obama which she said were elitist.  Obama said some voters in “small town” Pennsylvania   were bitter about the government and so they held on tightly to their “God and guns.”

Clinton said people don’t need a President who looks down on them.

Clinton supporter, U.S. Senator Evan Bayh said he did not think Obama was an elitist, but he did think the remarks would just give fodder to use against the candidate should he win his parties nomination.

In a related sidebar two prominent local Democrats says Clinton has her work cut our for her in Marion County.  Both County Auditor  Billie Breaux and County Chairman Mike O’Connor say Obama will likely do very well in Indianapolis; mainly because of the voters in the 7th Congressional District.

Here are couple interesting notes from the campaign trail.

Hillary Clinton will be in Indianapolis tomorrow with Evan Bayh at the Allison Transmission plant on the west side of town.  By the way, her campaign headquarters in Terre Haute went up in flames.  No jokes here, please.

Barack Obama must have a pair the size of Alpha Centauri.  His campaign has actually has a a campaign headquaters in Hamilton County, Fishers to be exact.  The rumor is there are more Democrats in his HQ than in the entire county.

Now that we’ve marked the first 100 days of the Ballard administration it’s time to give the Mayor a grade. 

He gets high marks for taking back IMPD and putting it back under the Mayor’s office.  He also gets credit for getting the state to pick up the pre-1977 police pensions as well as some of the other levies.  He’s putting a plan together to tackle abandoned housing, ex-offender re-entry programs and is working to fix the financial disaster that is Indianapolis’ money situation. 

For those he gets a big thumbs up.  They’ve made a few missteps, luckily for them the only people who paid attention were the political class and regular people could care less.   

My only real criticism of the administration you might find odd.  I honestly don’t think they are political enough.  Ballard is more about getting the job done and tends to shy away from the “political” side of being Mayor.  That’s admirable but you can’t be Mayor of 12th largest city in America without having to play the game.  You need to do it to deal with your enemies and to occasionally keep your friends from straying off course.

For example, one draft of the Mayor’s speech had a laundry list of things done by the Peterson administration which would have turned your hair white and made your teeth itch.  Ballard chose not to use it but instead focus his goals and vision of the city.  

I will give him high marks for being a nice guy and above board, but he may want to to make sure he’s got enough political ammunition stockpiled for the remaining 1360 days of his term.  He wants to truly do the best for all citizens and genuinely wants to work with the loyal opposition.  He just has to remind himself that you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs along the way.

So for your first 100 days Mr. Mayor, you get a “B+”.  

Tackling crime, improving education, getting city finances in order and focusing on the future were all themes laid out tonight in Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s first State of the City address.

Ballard delivered his speech at Union Station in downtown Indianapolis.

He said Indianapolis was a strong city, but citizens would to work together to endure for the future. The mayor touched on recent accomplishments such as getting control of the police department and restructuring it to improve the chain of command and put more officers on the street as well as getting help from the legislature in the form of pension relief and assuming other property tax levies.

Despite of those accomplishments the Mayor noted the city had work to do in eliminating abandoned houses, ex-offender re-entry and fixing its financial situation.

Ballard said government consolidation was crucial to solving the city’s financial problems, pointing out the city’s massive financial obligations;  $5.7  billion in long-term debt with $2.8 billion of that supported by property taxes.

He said the city had saved $9 million by holding back spending, but it would need the recommendation in the Kernan-Shepard report to fully complete the job.

The Mayor said, as reported here earlier, that by implementing the recommendations and convening the Indianapolis High-Performance Government team would produce the necessary savings to fully repeal the increase in the public safety tax.

The Mayor also talked about improving education and using the city’s resources to coordinate a county-wide mentoring program to meet every child’s needs.

Ballard did give credit to the Peterson Administration for its Greater Indianapolis Neighborhood Initiative and he also touched on his ethics reform package which he said will make government more transparent.

If you are wondering why the Mayor chose Union Station as his venue, he told the audience that for the city to stay competitive, it must increase its international profile by improving the cultural flavor of the city as well as its visibility abroad.

Union Station is the home of the Mexican Consulate.

The Mayor said he wanted to expand the sister-city program and promote Indianapolis abroad.

At the end of his address the invited the public to come to Mayor’s night out, call the action center or contact him through the city’s website.

He told the citizens it was their government and he encouraged them to get involved.

Any takers?

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has yet to give his State of the City speech tonight and Marion County Democrats are already going on the attack.

In a news release they say the Mayor’s speech is 100 days of broken promises.  They say the Mayor broke his promise to not put any lobbyists on city boards, going for a Super Bowl without putting more police on the street and added staff the 25th floor.

They also say he failed to deliver on his promise to fight to repeal property taxes and engaged in political cronyism.

I think my Democratic friends are wrong a lot of this stuff, but I will give them credit for getting the word out early.

If you’re looking for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard to call for a repeal of last year’s 65-percent in the County Option Income Tax, it’s not going to happen.  Sources tell me in tonight’s State of the City address,  the Mayor is going to call for the tax to be reviewed by the city’s High Performance Government Committee, which was created last year.

Sources say the Mayor would like to repeal the tax, but the city is still waiting to see how this year’s property tax reform passed out of the General Assembly will impact the budget.  Lawmakers voted to pick up a number of levies, including child welfare, health care and the pre-1977 police pensions to ease the burden on property taxpayers.

Democrats will introduce a proposal on Friday to repeal the portion of the COIT that is supposed to go for police pensions since that levy has been picked up by the state, even though nowhere in ordinance that created the tax does it say the money must go to police pensions only public safety.

Sources say Ballard wants the tax to be reviewed by the bi-partisan high performance team, created by the previous administration with help from the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, so it can tell him whether the tax should be repealed or applied in some other public safety capacity.

The sources also say the Mayor wants the team to do a top to bottom review of local government to find efficiencies in all city-county departments and agencies.

In addition, the Mayor believes the entire tax could be repealed if lawmakers were to implement the Kernan-Shepard Commission report on streamlining local government.

As we get closer to the May primary for the 7th Congressional District, I wonder how much will prejudice play a role in the decisions of voters?   It’s unfortunate that race, religion and gender still play a role in the 21st Century, but we have to acknowledge that reality.

Some people may choose to vote against Andre Carson, Carolene Mays and Woody Myers because they are Black.

Some people may vote against David Orentlicher because he is white.

Some may also vote against Carson because he is a Muslim.

Some may vote against Orentlicher because he is Jewish.

Some may vote against Mays because she is a woman.

Some may vote against Myers because he committed the unforgivable sin of living somewhere else for a while.

And there are even some Black people who won’t for Myers or Mays because of their “complexion and hair.”  (You know what I mean!)

What’s even sadder is that some people will vote for the candidates because of those reasons.

I have no problem voting for or against someone because you got to know them, but if you are going to make your voting decision based on one of the above mentioned reasons, do everyone a favor and don’t vote.

A complaint has been filed against the Barack Obama campaign by Harrison County GOP Chairman and blogger Scott Fluhr.  Fluhr alleges that when the Obama campaign gave out free tickets to this past weekend’s Dave Matthew’s concert that it was violating Indiana law by “giving something of value” in exchange for someone voting or registering to vote.

Good luck.

I already did the research on this when I heard the concert was being announced.  Fluhr would have to prove that the people went out and registered to vote or voted because of the concert.

Good luck.

Events like this happen all the time.  If a candidate has a cookout, the food has value.  If they give out candy, it has something of value.  If the Barack people were giving out cash or free TVs, that would be different.

From my understanding anyone with an Indiana ID could have gotten into the concert for free.  Attendees did not have to show their voter registration cards.

If going to try to beat Obamamannia, you’re going to have to do better than this.  Sorry, make that a whole lot better than this.

I’ve been spending the past few days trying to see how the Presidential primary will impact the 7th District race.  With so many new voters coming to the table, no true “incumbent” in the race and no candidate having hitched their wagon to either Hillary or Barack the political class is wondering where the new voters will go once they’ve cast their ballot for President.

I would have to say right now the momentum favors Dr. Woody Myers.  I say this because many of these new voters likely get their news and information from  television and Dr. Myers has had the strongest presence on the airwaves so far.  He even has ads running on the Greg Garrison show.  (I consider that either really brave or really brazen).   

I saw my first Carson television ad this morning and Carolene Mays has a radio commerical.  I have yet to see or hear anything from David Orentlicher.    So unless this dynamic changes, I think the new voters will trend towards what they see on television and right now it’s Woody Myers.