Regional NewsMideast "GI JANE" Act AnalysisThe Mideast region has proposed the following legislation to address the unemployment situation in the region:
GI JANE AMENDMENT
GI JANE will be replaced with the following
Growth. In. Jobs. And. New. Economy.
WHEREAS: Unemployment is at 12.1% in the Mideast with over 7 million citizen unemployed and
WHEREAS: Most citizens are employed in small businesses and consumer confidence is down
BE IT RESOLVED:
SECTION 1:
1. Any business that creates 1 new job and currently has under 15 employees in the current fiscal year will be given a $2,000 corporate tax credit.
2. There shall be no waiting period for a business or company to start after government forms are approved.
3. Drop the corporate tax rate to 22%.
4. Cut capital gains tax by 4% for incomes over $500,000 and 7% for incomes under $500,000.
5. Welfare program requires 40 hours a week of, or a combination of, education (to receive a GED), job training, work, or community service, for those that are deemed “fit to work” by the Mideast Government. Every welfare recipient deemed “able to work” must find work within two years of being enrolled in a Mideast welfare program or four years if the recipient is attending education at any level.
SECTION 2:
6. Departments and committees of government in the Mideast will eliminate overlapping responsibilities, tasks and programs to save tax-payer funding and to guarantee no business has to file or complete the same form or paperwork more than once. Each department and committee will send one representative to a weekly meeting in which they will decide who will have what specific responsibility that they alone will posses. The “Government Employment Committee” headed by an appointee by the Governor, confirmed by the Assembly will lead these meetings.
7. Eliminate all subsides to farms that are deemed inactive and are paid to not produce or grow crops, livestock, etc.
8. The Mideast government must buy products and materials to complete projects that are the cheapest on the market when the material is non-essential to safety and not needed for efficiency (examples: toilet, paper clips, hammers)
9. Projects of the Mideast government carried out by private companies must be chosen based on the cheapest, most efficient budget requested.
10. Halt Mideast government purchase of land for one year unless in case of emergency related to public health and safety.
11. Eliminate corporate subsidies for corporations that cannot provide a business plan or execute a plan that will bring in a profit within 3 years or a profit enough to pay off the subsidies in 9 years giving the corporation the option time for research, development, innovation and improvement or let a different, profitable, efficient company replace the failing corporation.
12. The Mideast “Government Employment Committee” will recommend and advise to cut jobs they deem “unneeded” or not beneficial to the Assembly, Governor or any Department or Committee to eliminate.
The Office of the GM projects* that the legislation will save or create 1.5 million jobs over two years at a cost of approximately $3 billion per year. Over ten years, this bill would save or create 2 million jobs at a cost of approximately $10 billion. Current economic trends indicate that the main job-creating portion of this bill, the new employee tax credit, will be utilized at a decreasing rate as the region and nation pull away from recession.
Many of the suggestions in this bill will save money and improve government efficiency over ten years, though the broader impact of these ideas cannot be fully assessed by OGM. It is advised that the Assembly more fully debate the various ways that businesses and individuals could be affected by these changes.
It is recommended that some clauses be further clarified to avoid mis-implementation, such as...
Clause 1: Is this for only one worker or
at least one worker? One new job created starting when? When does this credit expire? Is it $2,000 per new worker or a lump-sum of $2,000?
Clause 5: Requires a structure to rate and track all recipients of assistance.
Clause 6: Are these playable or non-playable positions?
Clause 11: Requires fuller consideration of the impact to specific industries, some of which may provide essential or beneficial services at little or no profit.
*Note: OGM could not score Clause 3 of this bill because the current corporate tax rate in the Mideast is unknown.