The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I did not expect this much buzz. I do want to reduce taxation, but I just thought that the bill in question went much further than we would be able to accomodate.

[Associate Justice PiT]

BK has said he is going to resign? How disappointing. He promised me he would be active too!

     I believe that he means Ben Kenobi, not Bacon King. I would also like to say that I agree with Zanas here; resigning Legislators should be replaced by people with similar political persuasions. I am waiting until after this weekend's election to appoint Kenobi's replacement, so I know who is available.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The People elected a Federalist to one of the two seats that were up last month, so they'll get a Federalist to replace him. I'm thinking either jerryarkansas or Dereich if one of them loses. Rockefeller is also a person of interest.

     Besides, I don't think I ever spoke with SJoyce about his replacement. I chose jerryarkansas because he was someone who wanted the job. He ran for the office, and when the vacancy materialized he was the only one to PM me about it. I certainly don't need a candidacy or a PM to consider someone, but it helps their case.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Zanas is the only one who has declared interest in the speakership. I'll give jerry an opportunity to chime in, if he so wishes, but otherwise it looks good for Zanas.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Alright, nice to have a race here. The vote opens now and closes in 72 hours.

Imperial Speaker:
[ ] jerryarkansas
[ ] Zanas46

[Associate Justice PiT]

      Congratulations, Zanas.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Also, I should mention that we have passed our 2011 and 2012 budgets as bills, so as to have a convenient record of them. I suggest our next order of business be to do the same with the 2013 budget.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Is our income tax currently flat?

     No, but it is pretty close to flat. The top bracket of 6% occurs at $7,000 for single filers and $10,000 for joint returns.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Is our income tax currently flat?

     No, but it is pretty close to flat. The top bracket of 6% occurs at $7,000 for single filers and $10,000 for joint returns.

This sounds very similar to Georgia's income tax code. I know much is carried over from OCGA; is this the case? Just for reference, Georgia's current income tax brackets were established approximately 100 years ago and have never been updated to account for inflation since.

     Yes, we do use Georgia's tax code. The brackets make more sense in that light.

[Associate Justice PiT]

In that case, what are the exact rates for each bracket? Right now, my amendment is far too inadequate to be a final product.

     They are given in this link.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Our income tax system is clearly hugely outdated and underdimensioned. However, making it harsher would perhaps not be very well understood by our citizens in a period of economical crisis. On the other hand, decreasing it again would be foolish in my opinion : it would be no different from abolishing it completely. No one can seriously affirm that our income tax is too high.

To the contrary, for many of our citizens our income tax is far too high. Ergo, what Griffin said.

     I would mention that the federal tax rates are already pretty high, so we really should not be raising our own taxes. I could be favorable to keeping the same brackets and raising the cutoffs, to where revenue would be commensurate with that of a 5% flat tax, per my earlier calculations.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I saw somewhere that the Mideast had a progressive corporate tax maxing out at 5%. I'm not sure where one could easily find it, though. I don't know about the other regions.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     As I posted elsewhere in this thread, personal income tax revenue is $56.27 billion and corporate income tax revenue is $12.98 billion.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I would like the tax cut to touch income taxes as well, but it's certainly a positive result, and particularly for regional businesses.



     On the IDS Budget of 2013: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT
     I am a little wary of us getting involved in issues of employment, though I think helping disabled people get jobs and reducing dependence on disability payments is a great result. Kudos to Zanas for analyzing the budget impact of the bill as well.



     On the IDS Disability Employment Act: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So, next bill on the docket?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I find it funny that so many of the bills in the docket lost their sponsor.

     Anyway, amendments are passed by the Legislature and then voted on by The People.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't see enough point in this bill to justify the expenditure that it would entail, nor do I think that the federal government would be interested in relinquishing their ownership of the parks.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't think we should bother with a motion to table. I rather like the lack of procedural red-tape that exists in the Imperial Legislature.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I like the Clean Power Act, though the cost of commissioning these reactors is one obvious issue to me. I would suggest decommissioning old reactors and selling off whatever we can (other than the waste itself, of course). I doubt that would suffice to pay for the sheer number of new reactors, though.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Are you thinking of nominting someone to cover the vacant seat?

     As far as I know, Duke hasn't vacated his seat yet. VP swears in first Friday of the following month.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Cost of commissioning a new nuclear plant is about $600 million off the top of my head. With only 11 plants, this project will be affordable for us.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't know where I saw that figure. Maybe I imagined it. I would also note that, according to this Nuclear Regulatory Commission fact sheet, decommissioning a reactor typically costs $300-400 million.

     As for disposal of waste, I was thinking about the possibility of an underwater storage facility. Water is effective at shielding against radiation and it would severely limit any potential for radiation damage.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well, I see that things have more or less ground to a halt here.

[Associate Justice PiT]

we really need to get this moving on, this back log is horrible.

     Indeed, we need to do something here.

[Associate Justice PiT]

      Adding on to the diplomatic difficulties of invading Mexico, I also question why we would want to incorporate these lawless states into our region. It seems to me like it would be nothing but trouble. We could talk about partnering with the Mexican government, but I doubt they'd want our militiamen running around in their country.

     Anyone who wants to approach the GM about the nuclear plants is free to do so. But do we even have a GM at the moment?