SE Agenda - January

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'd like some input as to what area people would like me to focus upon when it comes to getting referenda prepared for votes in January.  I'm ready to go with a SE response to the Clean Energy Act and to a lesser extent Excise Taxes, but I should have some time before New Year's to work some other stuff as well.

[King]

Income Tax, Tort Reform, and Criminal Code

[Colin]

Income Tax (lower it), Sales Tax (lower it), Tort Reform

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Income Tax (lower it), Sales Tax (lower it), Tort Reform

Colin, I'm a true fiscal conservative, which means that if I'm going to cut taxes, I'm also going to cut spending as well.  So what gets cut?

[King]

Income Tax (lower it), Sales Tax (lower it), Tort Reform

Colin, I'm a true fiscal conservative, which means that if I'm going to cut taxes, I'm also going to cut spending as well.  So what gets cut?

SE Education, give each state in the SE control of their education system.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

So in other words King, you want me to leave Education just as it is?  Until a SE law gets passed, the State laws remain in force unimpaired (except possibly by any new ones that pass our Senate.)

[Sam Spade]

Income Tax (lower it), Sales Tax (lower it), Tort Reform

Colin, I'm a true fiscal conservative, which means that if I'm going to cut taxes, I'm also going to cut spending as well.  So what gets cut?

As a fundamental question, what are we taxing in the SE right now and what are we spending on (separate of each state's individual burden)?

[Akno21]

Income Tax (lower it), Sales Tax (lower it), Tort Reform

Colin, I'm a true fiscal conservative, which means that if I'm going to cut taxes, I'm also going to cut spending as well.  So what gets cut?

SE Education, give each state in the SE control of their education system.

And how do they pay for it? If the larger government withdraws funds, another group will have to pick it up.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As a fundamental question, what are we taxing in the SE right now and what are we spending on (separate of each state's individual burden)?

As we transition from State to Regional administration of local government the tax and spending power of the Region will be expressed so that we can debate how much local spending and taxing should be done here in the fantasy forums

Right now, the Region is operating on such funds as the States send our way informally and by borrowing, probably using the Lottery Fund as collateral.  We essentially “spend” by mandating that the States undertake certain actions.  The Right-to-Work Initiative gives the SE some revenue from the fines it imposes.

I'd like to start the transition by passing some excise taxes which will fund the administration of the those taxes and give the Region some working capital to cushion the assumption of State spending by the Southeastern Region as well.  I've decided that in January,  I will push for three initiatives that will spend the money that the Feds are offering under the Clean Energy Act and a fourth initiative that will establish the framework for how Regional Excise taxes will be administered. February is still up in the air.

Given that many Southeastern States tie their State-based  spending on education to Sales Taxes, I think that tackling those two issues simultaneously, either in February or March would be a good idea.  I might have a proposal on that ready by January 1, but I don't think it'll be ready for a vote before February.

Tort Reform doesn't require new spending authority or taxes, so I'll see if I can come up with a proposal there as well for either January or February,since that seems like a popular choice.  I'm not a fan of simply passing damage claim caps and declaring victory as that merely treats the symptoms and not the underlying disease, I've got an idea, but I need to set it down in words.

[Sam Spade]

As a fundamental question, what are we taxing in the SE right now and what are we spending on (separate of each state's individual burden)?

As we transition from State to Regional administration of local government the tax and spending power of the Region will be expressed so that we can debate how much local spending and taxing should be done here in the fantasy forums

Right now, the Region is operating on such funds as the States send our way informally and by borrowing, probably using the Lottery Fund as collateral.  We essentially “spend” by mandating that the States undertake certain actions.  The Right-to-Work Initiative gives the SE some revenue from the fines it imposes.

I'd like to start the transition by passing some excise taxes which will fund the administration of the those taxes and give the Region some working capital to cushion the assumption of State spending by the Southeastern Region as well.  I've decided that in January,  I will push for three initiatives that will spend the money that the Feds are offering under the Clean Energy Act and a fourth initiative that will establish the framework for how Regional Excise taxes will be administered. February is still up in the air.

Given that many Southeastern States tie their State-based  spending on education to Sales Taxes, I think that tackling those two issues simultaneously, either in February or March would be a good idea.  I might have a proposal on that ready by January 1, but I don't think it'll be ready for a vote before February.

Tort Reform doesn't require new spending authority or taxes, so I'll see if I can come up with a proposal there as well for either January or February,since that seems like a popular choice.  I'm not a fan of simply passing damage claim caps and declaring victory as that merely treats the symptoms and not the underlying disease, I've got an idea, but I need to set it down in words.

ok, I'm pretty clear on what you're saying. 

So, I assume that we are just transferring taxing and spending powers from the state governments to the regional governments.  This regional government will form an overall bureaucracy in the handling of various details the state is controlling right now.

I assume this also means that we will try to keep tax burdens at roughly the same amount as they are from the state governments at present.  Until the federal government decides to downsize itself or decrease its tax burden (both of which look unlikely), this seems to me to make the most sense.  Fundamentally, I wish this would mean we would stay away from the income tax.

I am not quite as familiar with the education-sales tax scheme.  I am more familiar with the Texas scheme (extremely localized) where school districts use property taxes directly to pay for the public schools with fairly little state intervention (except for sharing between rich and poor land-wise school districts).  Down there, they had talked about switching the education burden to sales taxes, but have never done anything about it.

I think that tort reform and criminal code issues are the simplest ones to set up, before we get to the tax issues.