NE2: New Capital Act [Failed]

[Simfan34]

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Sponsor: Speaker Simfan
Debate time: 96 hours
Debate expires: Thurs. July 5, 2012 at 9:00 EST

[Simfan34]

I had anticipated that all three would have multiple proposals from the Administrator and be approved by the Assembly. However I seemed to have overlooked the location.

[Lincoln Republican]

Please explain to myself and to the people of the Northeast why we need a new capital, and why we should be spending multi multi billions of dollars on this project.

I don't see the government system not working because we do not have a brand new multi muilti billion dollar capital.

[Simfan34]

Where on Earth did I get Hartford from?

However I believe the sale of Regional holdings in New York City shall provide a good deal of funding. Would anyone have an Estimate?

[Simfan34]

My support has not changed. As a New Yorker, I can tell you our lives would be made easier with the capital elsewhere.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Uh... Simfan... Hartford isn't the regional capital.

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No, but it certainly should be.

Though I believe that passing the bill in its current form would be unconstitutional for this reason.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

We could build the city and then move the government there via amendment.

[Simfan34]

Yes. A capital is not necessarily synonymous with the official seat of the government- the Netherlands is perhaps the most well known example. I personally would favor an amendment upon completion.

However one could read the Constitution as making a mere designation as opposed to obligating the government to situate its offices there.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

We're not actually designating a new administrative center, yet. I don't think we'd be violating the Constitution unless this bill moved the capital, although it may be a good idea to sort that out first. Your thoughts, Scott?

Isn't that basically what this legislation prescribes, though?  Establishing and using a brand new capital constitutes as moving it, in my opinion.  Unless you guys plan on having two capitals...

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Yes. A capital is not necessarily synonymous with the official seat of the government- the Netherlands is perhaps the most well known example. I personally would favor an amendment upon completion.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean.  Would you elaborate?

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I think it might be best to get an opinion from the CJO on this.

[tmthforu94]

Why can't you just move the capital to another Northeast city? It seems like an awfully expensive project in such a difficult economic time.

[Insula Dei]

From the CJO's office:

As far as I can see the legislature has two paths open to it if it wishes to move the region's capital: a)It can just pass an amendment to the regional constitution and afterwards use the budget to allocate funds for the creation of new government infrastructure on the location specificated in that amendment b)It can pass this bill in a modified version (not containing the term 'capital') and then afterwards move the seat of government to the new city with an amendment to the constitution.

I don't find Speaker Simfan's argumentation (i.e. 'A capital is not necessarily the seat of government') at all convincing within the context of the Nort East's constitution and would advice the legislature to not muddy the waters with this sort of semantic games, which would open up the legislation under consideration to litigation.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

An amendment to the Constitution or this bill?

[Simfan34]

To this bill. What sort of language, Mr. CJO, would allow this bill to be constitutionally valid?

I kind of have a problem officially designating a nonexistent place of our capital. However we could split this into two bills authorizing the planning of the capital and then passing a constitutional amendment.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I'll amend the bill to read 'city' instead of 'capital'. If this passes, we'll move the government there via amendment.

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I'm not exactly sure if this is the proper language, but if it's not we can just re-amend it.

[Simfan34]

The amendment is friendly.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I'll amend the bill to read 'city' instead of 'capital'. If this passes, we'll move the government there via amendment.

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I'm not exactly sure if this is the proper language, but if it's not we can just re-amend it.

Excellent idea, Representative.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Yay!

[Lincoln Republican]

I move that we scrap this multi multi billion dollar boondoggle and expend the funds instead on improving the lives of the citizens of the Northeast.

[Simfan34]

Debate time has ended. The final text of the bill is as follows:

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Voting will last for 24 hours or until all have voted.

[Simfan34]

AYE

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Wait, shouldn't the bill designate the location of the capital before the Assembly votes on it?

[Simfan34]

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The admin. Will return to make proposals.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Oh, I was under the assumption that the admin would be responsible for planning the city itself, not the location of it, as well.  Thanks.

[Cincinnatus]

Unfortunately I'm posting a bit to late, but..

We could build the city and then move the government there via amendment.

So build a city that may or may not become the capital depending on the outcome of the amendment vote?

My support has not changed. As a New Yorker, I can tell you our lives would be made easier with the capital elsewhere.

So move the capital elsewhere, not build an entirely new one.  By the way, Napoleon tried to change the capital to Hartford in his original constitutional proposal, which is likely where Simfan got the idea from.

I move that we scrap this multi multi billion dollar boondoggle and expend the funds instead on improving the lives of the citizens of the Northeast.

Something we can agree on.  Use the money for actual urban development, instead of creating an artificial city-state for our officials.