Northeast Budget and Tax Committee

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

How many Reps are going to be on this committee?  Not to sound like a dick or anything, but the Assembly's pretty small for committees and stuff like that.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Bumping this.  We have to get to work real soon.

I'm actually going to bed this time , so we can start getting ideas down tomorrow.  I have some ideas for reducing the debt/getting us to a surplus, but I'm probably going to propose them as a separate bill in the future.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So would I appoint three Reps or would the Assembly elect three Reps to serve on this committee?  I forget what we did last time.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Nix suggested that we just have this thread as a place for everyone to discuss the budget.  There's apparently no protocol for selecting members, and I don't see a problem with including everyone in this process.  It's just better for us to have a separate thread for this issue because the budget usually takes more than three days to write and debate.  So, I guess we'll take things from there.

I'd appreciate input from everyone on this, though -- including bore.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Thank you, Nix.  There's no limitation on how many members can serve on the Committee, so I don't see why we can't get everyone involved, anyway.  Still, this will all have to be decided after we elect the Speaker.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Okay, guys.

To start us off, here's the last budget we passed.  As you all know, the Constitution requires that the budget be balanced except for in times of emergency.  The Northeast is not experiencing an economic crisis right now, so I think we ought to honor that provision of our Constitution and pass it balanced.

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I don't really have a problem with what we've got now, but Governor Tmthforu94 of the Mideast suggested to me privately that we reduce the gas tax.  I don't have a huge problem with that, but I made an earlier proposal in my campaign to raise the top income tax rate by a modest 1%.  That could possibly make up for any revenue we lose from the reduced gas tax.  What do you guys think?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

We might need part of the surplus for the new capital, in case we ever get that amendment passed.

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What do we think of this?  It's basically what Barnes proposed with minor changes.  If no one voices any major objections to this budget, I will formally propose it tomorrow night and we can work out any minor issues over the three days of debate.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Where does the remaining 20% of the surplus go?  I only see 80% being allocated.

The remaining 20% would be saved.  Sorry, that should be expressed in the budget as well.  Fixing now.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Where does the remaining 20% of the surplus go?  I only see 80% being allocated.

The remaining 20% would be saved.  Sorry, that should be expressed in the budget as well.  Fixing now.

Cool.  I was wondering if was going into our secret assembly booze fund...oh, uh, you didn't see that.

Save some for me!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

It seems that recovering from Sandy will cost 50 billion dollars, now obviously some of that will come from the private sector, and some more from the federal government, but still pending correction from the gm that will be a hefty amount. It might be a good idea to allocate a percentage of the surplus every year into a natural disasters fund, for events like Irene and Sandy, which would not be touched at any other time.

Another suggestion I have is a change from a tax by curb weight to one on fuel efficency, that change can be adjusted to be revenue neutral, but most importantly it would help us fight global warming.

Would you consider 25% from the remaining surplus to be a good starting point?  We are going to have to spend on disaster relief, but it's nice to always have some money aside for the future.

I apologize for being late, but do really need the income tax increase to make up for the gas tax decrease? What would the budget look like if we keep income taxes at the current rate?

I'm not too sure, but I think it might be necessary for the Capital and disaster relief.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

It seems that recovering from Sandy will cost 50 billion dollars, now obviously some of that will come from the private sector, and some more from the federal government, but still pending correction from the gm that will be a hefty amount. It might be a good idea to allocate a percentage of the surplus every year into a natural disasters fund, for events like Irene and Sandy, which would not be touched at any other time.

Another suggestion I have is a change from a tax by curb weight to one on fuel efficency, that change can be adjusted to be revenue neutral, but most importantly it would help us fight global warming.

Would you consider 25% from the remaining surplus to be a good starting point?  We are going to have to spend on disaster relief, but it's nice to always have some money aside for the future.

25% would be a good. Also I take it the surplus is 7.5 billion instead of 11.5 billion, so,, were the new capital amendment to pass, how far would 3.75 billion go?

Why do you say the surplus is $7.5 billion?

If Sandy is expected to cost $50 billion to recover from 3.75 billion is a very modest start.  Hopefully, the Federal government can have a role in helping the Region recover.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Just remember that what ever we do, we have to be careful with how much of the surplus we use so that there's some put aside for the capital and some left over.  That's why I asked the Federal government for assistance in fixing the damages, because there wouldn't be nearly enough money in the surplus to use even if we scrap the new capital proposal entirely (obviously).  Budget surpluses are normally put aside for emergencies, anyway, but ours needs to grow.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

For now, it might be ideal to just use some of the money from our expenditures (transportation, aid and incentives, etc.) to fund the recovery.  That's where the money is needed most.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Great news!

This isn't important yet, but with the passage of the Quick-Action Closing Fund Act, expenditures for the Economic development fund are estimated to increase to $76 billion, going by the Arkansas numbers.  If we distribute the extra funds to the surplus fund, our surplus will grow from $18.5 billion to $56.5 billion, and that's before we add the money saved by the Smarter Spending Act of 2012.  Therefore, unless my math is wrong, our surplus will more than triple by March.

This is a remarkable accomplishment that could not have been achieved without the help of the Assembly, and I hope to be in this office again when the budget for FY13 March-July is brought to this body.