The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[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?

[Zanas]

I just figured we don't... Griffin's application has been slaughtered in the nest, and I don't even know if someone has applied since.

[Donerail]

I would suggest keeping the annexation stuff on the back burner as a negotiating chip with the Canada stuff (ideally we'd expand north, but if the other regions are greedy and refuse to grant us anything even though they're gobbling up Canada)...

[Adam Griffin]

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?

You do now.  Be sure to submit any formal requests for cost estimates to my office, once I get it up and running.

[Velasco]

I would suggest keeping the annexation stuff on the back burner as a negotiating chip with the Canada stuff (ideally we'd expand north, but if the other regions are greedy and refuse to grant us anything even though they're gobbling up Canada)...

Do you want to expand The South to Ontario, Alberta or Prince Edward Island? Maybe New Foundland? Honestly, I see all this Canada stuff quite silly. Some regions have empty states or populated only by 1 or 2 people. Then, what's the reason behind to expand northward? I suspect that the will of annexate our northern neighbours is caused by the fact that their hockey teams always defeat the Atlasian ones.

I don't have major objections to the fixer amendment as it's written. I think it might fix some unclear sections of our legislation, so I second it.

As other have stated, the best way of dealing with the troubles on the other side of Rio Grande is cooperating with Mexican authorities, both with the Federal Government and the Governors of the frontier states. We must bear in mind that one of the big problems there is the weakness or the lack of presence of the (Mexican) State, which is replaced by local powers, mainly the drug cartels. Corruption is a major issue as well. Only assisting them in what we prune, we will be able to advance towards something similar to a solution. A permanent dialog with our Mexican counterparts is necessary in crucial topics such as immigration and the cooperation to the development, which is the only rationale way to solve so many troubles, at least in the mid or the long term.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think SJoyce's suggestion was that we could incorporate some culturally Southern states on our periphery in exchange for other regions incorporating parts of Canada. It makes sense in terms of maintaining geographical balance, since our region is the only one that is completely divorced from the Canadian border.

     With that said, incorporating parts of Canada is change for the sake of change in the purest sense. Other than giving Canadian posters the satisfaction of registering where they live in real life, there is really no substantial effect to it. If we're going to do that, we might as well incorporate the rest of the world into Atlasia as well.

[Donerail]

     I think SJoyce's suggestion was that we could incorporate some culturally Southern states on our periphery in exchange for other regions incorporating parts of Canada. It makes sense in terms of maintaining geographical balance, since our region is the only one that is completely divorced from the Canadian border.

     With that said, incorporating parts of Canada is change for the sake of change in the purest sense. Other than giving Canadian posters the satisfaction of registering where they live in real life, there is really no substantial effect to it. If we're going to do that, we might as well incorporate the rest of the world into Atlasia as well.

Yes, that's what I meant (PiT put it in much better words). And yeah, it is, but it's what the Administration wants, and if the other regions decide to do it we may as well make the best of it.

[Zanas]

Yeah I'm not a whole fan of annexions at large, whether it's towards the North of the South. If Canada ends up being incorporated in Atlasia though, we'll have to fight to achieve a comparable importance for the South in the final output. But I don't think we should annex Mexico or even parts of it, rather incorporate "Southernish" states in the IDS (Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginias...).

But I can agree that if we keep this threat up our sleeve for the time being, we could use it to strengthen our position in the negotiations to reorganize Atlasia if Canada is annexed. So can we all agree to keep the bill in the docket for now and only bring it up again if such an event takes place ? Because if I bring it to a vote now, it will be barred and won't be available then.

[Dereich]

I'm fine with that. And once the northern thing fizzles out and is forgotten about I'll rewrite the bill to something more along the lines of cooperating with the Mexican government, as suggested by PiT and Velesco.

Any other thoughts on the fixer-upper amendment and the income tax bill?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The problem I see with the partnership is that it would probably require approval by the Senate, since I imagine the Constitution prohibits regions from entering treaties with sovereign nations on their own. Not an insurmountable hurdle by any means, but one we should be aware of.

      In re income tax, the reason I vetoed it was that the bill created a budget deficit, and a large one at that. I would strongly suggest amending it to fix that. We could dip into the rainy day fund, but I would suggest against that since disasters do happen. We could also just slash enough spending to pay for it, but I'll believe that when I see it. We could also dial it back, and I know that Duke was interested in a 5/3 version (we are now at 5.8/4 for reference), and that would have barely kept us in the black. I don't think we could do any sort of power bill in that case, though.

[Ban my account ffs!]

On behalf of the IDS, could you do a cost analysis of the Clean Power Act? The current form of the bill is located here:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=112235.msg3640119#msg3640119

Considering that this is a government led project where red tape is all but removed, nuclear power is going to be much more cost effective than IRL.  Remember, however, that nuclear reactors are very expensive.

With that said, if you find suitable sites for these plants (with access to inexhaustible water supplies), there's no reason a massive expansion in nuclear energy can't bring long term benefits to the South.

As SoIA, I tentatively support this project so long as the necessary precautions are taken.  The south is the least suitable for most renewable energy resources (geothermal, wind, solar) as a whole.. so a backbone of nuclear energy makes sense.

I'll let Adam give more details on this as he has had more experience with this particular project... but generally, domestic policy questions like this can be routed to the SoIA.  I have a thread you can post in.

[Dereich]

Speaking of the power bill, I've submitted a request to our shiny new GM, AdamGriffin, to analyze its cost EDIT: Snowguy beat me to it.

So it comes down to the power bill or lowering income taxes; I know both of our Labor members dislike the power bill, is their any chance either of you would support lowering taxes? And Jerry and Gamecock too, either of you have a preference? I think I'd prefer to go with the power bill; we've already lowered taxes this session and Snowguy's points make me favor it even more.

[Dereich]

We have our cost estimate!

IDS Clean Power Act - (11) 1200-MW water-pressurized reactors

Construction Costs: $24.948 billion
5-Year Operational Costs*: $11.562 billion

Total 5-Year Cost: $36.512 billion

*(Fuel, Maintenance, Staff, Decommissioning; $0.02/kWh)

Now lets finish this bill, once and for all! I still support it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     That spread over five years will be manageable. It'll leave us about $500 billion under budget for this year, which is a little close, but not too bad overall.

[Zanas]

Ok so we're moving closer to the conclusion here. I still have to state that I am massively worried by that quantity of new nuclear sites around my family, friends and co-regionals, but it is not my power as Speaker to get in the way of the will of the Legislature, only in my power as Legislator to express my discontent and opposition.

There has been an opening on discussing income tax as an alternative to building so much Fukushimas on our soil. I would be interested in opening this door a bit, for the sake of it.

I know I have been one of the fiercest opponents of the abolition of income tax in our region, and I still am, but I had realized when we were having this debate, luckily vetoed by PiT, that our regional income tax was only an addition to a much larger federal income tax. As an immigrant of a centralized foreign country, I am not always very familiar with federal and regional repartition.

So I think we could maybe be discussing what the Federalists of the South would deem acceptable in income tax reduction to avoid building nuclear plants at home ? Velasco, are you with me on this ?

[Adam Griffin]

These bills may be of particular use to the Legislature:

https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Nuclear_Power_Advancement_Act
https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Nuclear_Waste_Reprocessing_Act
https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Comprehensive_Protection_of_Nuclear_Power_Act

You can get the overall 5-year cost reduced by about 20% by taking advantage of the construction & reprocessing subsidies.

[Adam Griffin]

Here are the most recent financial indicators for the nation and some information on regions - in particular, the level of taxation as enacted by the 2013 IDS Budget:

Current as of 3/20/2013

National GNP & Growth Stats:

GNP: $15.06 trillion
GNP 6-Month Growth: 0.98%

2013 Projected Federal Revenue: $3.01 trillion
2013 Projected Federal Revenue As % of GDP: 19.98%

CPI (1 month) +0.22%
CPI (Last 12 months) +4.04%

Gold: $1986.45/oz
Crude Oil: $93.57/barrel

ANSE: 871.37
NASDAQ: 2298.56



*ME, MW & PAC budgets not completed for 2013; ME Regional Revenue & Revenue as % of GDP based off of 2012 budget

     

[Zanas]

Since we had come to a deadlock on the nuclear power bill, I think maybe new blood can come in the House from the ongoing election, and maybe settle things a bit in one way or the other.

Also, if I am reelected as Legislator, I intend to try my hardest to stay Speaker and make a good job out of it, better than what can be said from what I did the last three weeks. If I am confirmed as Speaker, I'll make the following pledge : I'll have a mandatory confidence vote organized every two weeks while I'm in this office. This will just be a quick 24 or 48 hour vote in the House to see if you are satisfied. If not, I'll humbly step down from Speakership and be a classic Legislator again, or head out to other business if I find I cannot fulfil my commitment satisfactorily.

We'll resume legislative work as soon as the 3 new Legislators have sworn in, and I promise we'll have a vote on at least one bill before Friday night !

[Dereich]

No matter who gets in I'm pretty sure voting on the fixer-upper amendment and the veto-override bill could begin almost immediately. Nobody objected to the first and nobody supported the second. Even if two or three new people come into the legislature both votes are pretty much decided.

[Dereich]

Since we had come to a deadlock on the nuclear power bill, I think maybe new blood can come in the House from the ongoing election, and maybe settle things a bit in one way or the other.

Also, if I am reelected as Legislator, I intend to try my hardest to stay Speaker and make a good job out of it, better than what can be said from what I did the last three weeks. If I am confirmed as Speaker, I'll make the following pledge : I'll have a mandatory confidence vote organized every two weeks while I'm in this office. This will just be a quick 24 or 48 hour vote in the House to see if you are satisfied. If not, I'll humbly step down from Speakership and be a classic Legislator again, or head out to other business if I find I cannot fulfill my commitment satisfactorily.

We'll resume legislative work as soon as the 3 new Legislators have sworn in, and I promise we'll have a vote on at least one bill before Friday night !

If this is true and you'll step down if you aren't able to be active then I'll endorse you to remain speaker. I just want to get things moving again and I feel I can trust you to do that.

[Zanas]

Alright, we have a new Legislature, a fresh start, and we have the perfect thing for it : an uncontested piece of legislation that we can pass. We really didn't have much debate on this cause we're basically all in favor. If our only new Legislator, Hashemite, wants to go through the last pages of the thread to have an idea, he can.

I'll launch the vote right now, but to my knowledge Dereich and Hash haven't sworn in yet, so they'll have to do so before voting on this. Voting will end on Tuesday, March 26th, 24:00.

As it is a regional constitutional amendment, it needs the green light from the Legislature to be brought in front of the IDS citizens in a specific booth. So that will be two votes for the price of one, hurray !

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Article I, Section 10 is hereby amended to read:

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Article I, Section 12 is hereby amended to read:

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Article II is hereby amended to read:

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Article VII, Clause 3 is hereby amended to read:

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Article VII, Clause 4 is hereby amended to read:

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[/quote]

Please vote :
[ ] Yes
[ ] No
[ ] Carrots

[Zanas]

That is, of course, if no one had the intention to run for Speaker... If someone does, I'll probably have to withdraw or at least postpone the message above.

[Hash]

Aye on the fixer-upper amendment

I hope the nuclear power debate can get back on track. It should be brought to a final vote. I lean towards opposing the bill as it currently stands, but I should be able to post some more thoughts on the matter later on.

[Dereich]

Aye

[Velasco]

Aye on the fixer-upper. Nothing against carrots, on the other hand.

Congratulations to Zanas, Hash and Dereich for their election for the new Legislature.