NE1: Northeast Devolution Referendum Act, 2015

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

Limited powers in all sectors might be possible. Why not make this an issue to the other regions too?

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

Limited powers in all sectors might be possible. Why not make this an issue to the other regions too?

We can do - I'm just a representative in Northeast, which is why I've proposed it in the Northeast only. I would prefer for all regions to have the same power - asymmetrical devolution can cause issues...

I'm just bringing up the possibility of making this an issue for all regions.  What I'm really saying is that the assembly can have limited powers on some of the sectors, and full powers on the rest (NE assembly should have at least "little powers" on all of the sectors)

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

There's literally no way that this bill can pass-it would break the northeast's economy. Having devolved control over stuff like Broadcasting, Energy and Pensions isn't even possible under the Federal System

How would it break our economy - are you suggesting that the people in the Northeast are unable to run their own affairs?

For energy and pensions - I've made an amendment. I don't see how Broadcasting can't be devolved though.

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I'm suggesting that devo-max, which is what this bill is should not be introduced when we already have a Federal Government that could ovveride all of these issues. Broadcasting has several regulations on it already, from a federal viewpoint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Federal_Communications_Commission

I just don't see the point in this bill when the Federal System already allows for this. We shouldn't break the debate down to populist rhetoric about who should be trusted with power when the current system works perfectly fine.

To take one example, if you had full control over education you'd lose your Pell Grants, which have been very effective in helping poorer kids get a college education.

Would full power over taxation remove the Federal Income tax?

Would environment devolution allow the Northeast to overrule the ban on Fracking?

Would minimum wage devolution remove the Federal minimum wage, since we just increased it I believe it's actually higher than the Northeast minimum wage.

We're talking about massive constitutional change that completely bypasses the ability of the Federal Government to regulate, maintain and protect the Regions

This can be improved. If I am an assemblyman, I would rather support for limited on some and full powers on the others. Because I think when the NE region has full control on everything, that's authoritative for me.