Talk Elections

Greetings Atlasia!

As your new Game Moderator, I'll be following the two-thread format established by former GM Marokai: The other thread (The Atlasian Almanac-Gazette) is for GM updates; this thread is for community discussion of those updates.

Additionally, I hope to receive ideas from Atlasians about what they hope to see in stories.  At some point I'll be asking Atlasians for help in collecting certain information, and solicit Atlasians' thoughts on various issues relevant to creating updates. Any questions for the GM can be posted here, and I'll do my best to answer them.

3 cheers for the GM (3 more cheers if he makes a story where I win the lotto!)

Thanks. Does Atlasia have a lotto?

Speaking of which . . . I'd like to have handy information about what the budgets and tax rates are of the various regions that have them. Right now I know what the Mideast's are. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is the reason why Polnut made a final tax proposal in his farewell address.  To make this part of your responsibility easier.  The budget is one reason why I would be hesitant to ever be in your shoes ;) 

Here (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=132028.0) is the IDS Budget Commission thread.  I believe the updated budget is in one of the last posts.

     There's an extra-updated version somewhere in my office, but it is almost the same as that. I'll go get it for you.

     EDIT: Here is the most recent budget:

Kudos to the IDS!


Haven't gotten any response from my first story besides a statement from SoIA. Was it a tl;dr?

I read it and it's good; not a lot to comment on though.

I am waiting with bated breath for November's national unemployment with regional breakdown, Atlasia dollar inflation, GDP growth, oil prices, and all those other fun figures :)

I would certainly like to see more for something my office can do. I mean, if I'm not going to be able to respond or truly do anything, I might as well leave.

You do realize you can create stories of your own (with Shua's approval), yes?

Come now, Cynic isn't that silly.. Or is he?

Yeah, but where's the fun in that if you're not the GM? :P

What's the point in having a SOIA if he's not submitting stories to the GM? :P

I actually thought there's room for potential policy responses to some things in there, if people were interested.

well, then I hope you enjoy the employment figures I just posted. Don't worry, I'll post more stories now that I'm back from being out of town, and I'll think of some things to help me with if you like. Hopefully the regions, the President, and the Senate can be interacting with you as well.

Numbers make me happy :D

One thing though; why is Imperial unemployment so high?

Basically, because the rate was already high, so it'll take a while for it to come down.  Why was it already high before last month?  Apart from loss of public employment reported in August, I'm not really sure, but I'm trying to keep some continuity with the numbers.

Somebody BSed it.  It was lower after Badger than I, IIRC, but I don't remember exactly what.

I'd say the SIS policy has been an overall success.  Comprehensive illicit drug policy is needed to reduce the dangers and risks.  SIS are the red-headed step-child of such a policy because they aren't there to stop people from using drugs.  But when people recognize that many people simply will not stop using drugs, we can show compassion and aid in keeping the community disease free by offering a safe place for addicts to go.

IRL, there is actually a home in the Twin Cities for alcoholics that allows patients to drink on site (though they must be in their rooms and not in the public areas).  Like the SIS program, it shows mixed, but mostly positive results since it has turned people away from alcohol and helped them seek proper treatment.  And for those that don't, they have a warm bed and a hot meal that will keep them safe and alive hopefully long enough to make their own decision to seek treatment.

These people are sick.  We need a lot more carrot and less stick.  Let people keep their dignity throughout the healing process and you'll see more people take part in it.

I'd like to reassure the postal service that I will not sign any reform bill into the law that just slashes and burns the postal service, the consequences be damned.  The recent charade by the senate and the lack of commitment by senators on creating meaningful reform that helps, rather than hurts the postal service did nothing but scare the living daylights out of everybody.  I want to reassure you that new attempts at reform will not do this.

Of course the reform will require labor cost reductions and a reform of services provided to keep mail delivery fast, competitive, and most importantly, relevant in the age of electronic correspondance and private package carriers.

That said, I do not think greatly reducing services to save costs will help.  In fact, I think it will hurt.  That will only send the postal service into a permanent tailspin as demand falls further requiring more service cuts and so on and so forth. 

Instead, I would favor a system that will probably see an increase in prices but focuses heavily on the quality of service in order to draw more customers.  People aren't sending as much mail as they used to and the Atlasian postal service can never compete with a much more convenient and free service like e-mail. 

The postal service will have to shrink to a certain degree, but we can achieve that without drastic measures that leave people angry and jobless.  The postal service will survive and do well if it can deliver mail and packages quickly and efficiently at competitive prices.  That is what the reform package will focus on.

I'll be out for Tues through Friday.  I hope to be able to finish pulling together a budget estimate (revenues and expenses) the first week of the new year, and some interesting stories too.

Continuing from our discussion in ZuWo's thread, do you know what the federal government allocated to "regional health administrations" before the passage of the below bill?

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=145074.0

The Federal government didn't allocate a specific number. It just said it would be liable for all costs for services under the Atlasian National Healthcare Act - which is what makes the new bill especially confusing.

Here, though, is what the costs were in the September budget update.  Though I haven't been able to get the new budget update up yet, I'll just say now that you can assume the cost of each regional administration has increased by about 10% since then.


Really, without some sort of clarification on this bill from the Senate or the Administration, it makes the future cost estimation of the whole Healthcare program and any stories related to it impossible.
.

I'm putting a budget estimate together.  I'm introducing revenue figures into the budget, and from my data sources I can best calculate revenue as collected after deductions and exemptions.  Expenditures however will include tax credits.  This is a change from previous budgets where deductions, exemptions, and tax credits were all categorized as 'tax expenditures' and added to the spending side. With the introduction of revenue figures, this distinction is more important. We can still have total tax expenditure estimates listed separately.   
I think this accords with the spirit of the Budget Process Committee that met a year or so ago, and I won't change the format any more than I think is necessary.  However, please feel free to comment with any concerns about the change I am suggesting.

I put the revenue figures up.  I think these might be the first revenue figures in  . . . probably ever, so take a look at them and see what you think.  I'll be putting up the spending side in the next few days.

Up Next: Reports on Northeast, followed by Midwest and Pacific.

I haven't forgotten about the Regional Roundabout. Hopefully that will have an update sometime in the next two weeks.

Great work on the budget!  Do you happen to have the public debt figure (or did I miss it)?

I knew I forgot something.   It's now posted.

$12 trillion, ouch.

Didn't Atlasia avoid the Iraq War, Bush tax cuts, and other budget busters that affect the United States?

The Iraq War didn't end until my End To Imperialism Act passed.

Yes, but I thought that was an accounting error, and no money was actually being spent on it.  Hmm...someone really needs to compile a GM history.  I have an Atlasian economic history compiled in a spreadsheet, but it only goes up to 2006 or thereabouts.

If we had troops over there, which we did, it cost money. Lots of money.

That fiasco is still mind boggling to me.  Like I said, we need an official history.

No, mostly, and we've had plenty of budget busters of our own.

Surely the National Insurance Program would be a large additional cost?

Yes, though it also has it's own taxes. My suspicion is that the program has its own deficit that our government is liable for, but I haven't done the calculations.  The program was established with  a very complicated bill (https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Comprehensive_Social_Security_Reform_Act). Looking at the bill again, I'm reading Section 2, clause 7:
"The Federal Government shall be responsible for providing the Functioning funds to the NSSA. The Department of Internal Affairs shall be able to decide the amount of those funds. The Functioning funds devolved to the NSSA shall be subject to a vote in the Senate."
So I guess the functioning funds should have technically been included in the budget I published, but there's a whole 'nother process involved that I don't quite get.
A committee is supposed to be convened at this Fall on the budget for the program. That seems like a while off, considering meanwhile we may be bleeding an unknown amount of red ink and/or taxing people more than we realize.

I was just going over the amount of money spent total and I think you had a mathematical error with the Transportation Spending. It's a bit over the 70-odd billion that you had written on the original post. Or did I do my math wrong? Thanks :)

Nice catch. I'm not sure how that happened. It's been corrected and all totals adjusted accordingly.

:D Thank you! :D

I just realized that ANSE is the Atlasian National Stock Exchange, and basically replaced the NYSE in 2009.  So, I may be going back and changing some posts to reflect this.   

To the folks who've been around longer than I have - if I seem to be ignorant of an important institution or event in Atlasia in my GM posts, please let me know. :)

I'm wondering if anyone knows if it's okay for the GM to put together a story for someone else to publish, or to give the GM approval to a post from another Atlasian media source.  There's something I'd like to do but I can't really do it on the "inside."

Purple State and I would often take news articles, re-purpose certain terms to fit Atlasia, and edit them down to a handful of paragraphs. No one's complained so far, so I say just go for it.

As Marokai said, it's common practice.  Badger did it too.

That post wasn't clear about what I meant. I've edited it.

This is done. I've also gone back in and added currency exchange information.

I'll be gone for a week starting tomorrow.

Gm Shua, might you have any valuable information for my region, especially concerning our budget? More specifically I am interested in seeing the public vs. Private breakdown for things like education, employment, healthcare and transportation in my region.

Do you know if the northeast has ever passed a budget?

If I remember correctly, they drew their budget out of thin air without moderator approval, and then got all pissy when I tried to fix it (this is back when I was SoIA).  Perhaps it has been fixed, though.

What legislation has the IDS passed that accounts for the low (relative to all the others) unionization rate?

The IDS's right to work law (https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/Return_of_the_Right-to-Work_Initiative) contributes some. A lot of the difference has to do with their being not as much historical importance of labor unions in the region and its industries, and less cultural emphasis on collective action.  The thrifty IDS budget suggests public sector labor unions are not a large factor in the region.

I'll be gone for about a week.   

Please encourage your representatives to pay close attention to recent updates, that our country may be prevented from ruin.

I'll be gone for the next week.

Could we get some data on which colleges have a student population where >5% of the population are receiving federal student loan assistance?

I'd imagine it's the vast majority of colleges apart from religious vocational schools, for-profit colleges, and a few institutions associated with political conservativism.

The GM's office would like to wish all Atlasians a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  For those who have some time off of work or school, enjoy your vacation.  For those who have to work, be thankful you have a job. For those without a job, enjoy your free time.

I'm off to play in the woods for a couple days.

Have fun!

Mr. GM, could we get some estimates on how much it would cost to build this network (brown lines from Corpus Christi continue on to the border):

()

Red, blue, and orange are TGV-esque high-speed rail, while green and brown are conventional intercity rail.

do you have a figure for the total mileage?

St. Petersburg-Tampa-Lakeland-Orlando-Sebastian-West Palm-Ft. Lauderdale-Miami: 350 miles.
Orlando-Winter Park-Jacksonville-Savannah-Charleston-Fayetteville-Raleigh: 500 miles.
Jacksonville-Macon-Atlanta: 300 miles.
Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte+Winston-Salem-Greensboro+Raleigh/Durham-Rocky Mount: 340 miles.
Atlanta-Chattanooga: 120 miles.
Atlanta-Birmingham-Tuscaloosa: 210 miles.
Tuscaloosa-Jackson: 180 miles.
Tuscaloosa-New Orleans: 300 miles.
Dallas-San Antonio: 280 miles.
Houston-Austin: 160 miles.
Dallas-Texarkana-Little Rock: 328 miles.
New Orleans-Lafayette-Lake Charles-Beaumont-Houston: 400 miles.

Dallas-Houston is made already and Raleigh-Durham-Greensboro-Charlotte is made.

How much would this cost?

Immigration Reform Act of 2012

Section 1
•   The Mideast Assembly recognizes that although English is the primary language of the region, there is no official language in the Mideast. 
•   The Mideast government will build English language education and career-services centers in the cities of Baltimore, Chicago (2x), Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Milwaukee, Nyman DC (2x), Richmond, and St. Louis. These centers will focus on helping first generation immigrants learn English and find jobs so that they can be productive members of Atlasian society.
•   Any first-generation immigrant who passes a region-issued English language exam at one of these centers will be allowed to remain in the region for an additional five years under the guest-worker program described in Section 2, Clause 1 of this bill.

Section 2
•   The Mideast will establish a ten-year guest-worker program through which immigrant workers will be issued special visas that will allow them (along with their nuclear family) to reside in the U.S. as guest workers for a period not to exceed ten years. 
•   During this time, all guest workers and their family are encouraged to work to gain citizenship during this ten-year window

May I have a cost estimate on this bill?

Just to put more on your plate, may I have a cost estimate on the DREAM Act? (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=160830.0)  I took a wild guess and wrote $25 billion on the price tag, but I think we need a realistic estimate.

And since you don't already have enough requests, here's another bill we need a cost estimate on. ;D

Can we get an update for the Mideast Budget: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=160600.0

The tax on beer was increased by 10 cents to $0.30/gallon.

Also, The Contest Winnings tax needs to be added in (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=158291.0) and the Pension Tax (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=158931.0).

Thanks!

Mr. GM, could we get an estimate for how much additional revenue would be brought in by the following tax increases and how much they would reduce the debt (projected to be $17.04 billion with the old rates).  The proposed rates are in parentheses, while the old ones are not.  If it's not too much work, it would also be great to see a this broken down by bracket (in addition to the totals, of course).  Thanks :)

Mideast Income Tax Rate:
0%    $0 - $13,000 (0%)
1%    $13,001 - $40,000 (1%)
1.5%    $40,001 - $100,000 (2%)
2.2%    $100,001 - $180,000 (3.5%)
2.7%    $180,001 - $300,000 (5.5%)
3.25%    $300,001 - $750,000 (6.5%)
4%    $750,001 - $2,750,000 (7.5%)
5%    $2,750,001- $9,999,999 (8.5%)
6.5%   $10,000,000+ (9.75%)
1.5%   Employer conributions to pensions (1.5%)

Mideast Corporate Tax Rate:

0%    $0 - $50,000 (0%)
0.5%    $50,001 - $75,000 (0.5%)
1%    $75,001 - $125,000 (1.2%)
1.5%    $125,001 - $350,000 (1.8%)
2%    $350,001 - $1,000,000 (2.5%)
2.5%    $1,000,001 - $10,000,000 (3.25%)
3.25%    $10,000,001 - $20,000,000 (4.5%)
4%    $20,000,001-$70,000,000 (5.5%)
5%   $70,000,001+ (6.5%)

Shua, can we please have cost estimates on this legislation (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=164369.msg3517843#msg3517843) and this legisation? (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=163026.msg3494466#msg3494466)  Thank you.

Mr. GM, we're going to need a cost assessment for the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy and how much money the Northeast and Mideast will each need from the Federal government.

I would like to know the cost of nationalization of all utility companies in the Region of the South. This includes Gas, water, electricity, sewage, and garbage, also internet and wireless communication systems. I would also like to know how much would it cost to nationalize rail, and if that is possible in one region(seeing as the system is connected), and what kind of options we have available for sharing rail with other rails/existing companies that maybe be using our system for transit.

You can request however much you believe is warranted based on RL conditions, and what you want to prioritize in terms of recovery. In terms of the total damage, there is no agreed upon dollar amount at this point, though the most recent estimates come around $50 billion (probably  95% of which is in the NE) in terms of both public and private property, insured and uninsured. 

     Does the South need any money for Hurricane Sandy? I wasn't made aware of this request for money until quite recently.

Damage was minor in Florida. Sand was washed onto some coastal roads in South Florida, and traffic lights were thrown out of order due to power outages, and of course you had flooding and beach erosion in some areas. Schools and all extracurricular activities were cancelled in Palm Beach/Broward/Dade Counties, as did several schools on the Treasure Coast. In east-central Florida, 1,000 lost power. 20 flights were cancelled at Miami and 13 were cancelled at Ft. Lauderdale. There was also damage to the White Oak Conservation Center in Nassau County, which led to two panthers escaping (they were later recaptured). A Russian electronic intelligence-gathering ship was also granted safe harbor in the commercial port of Jacksonville.

In North Carolina, a state of emergency existed in 24 western counties due to large snowdrifts (up to a foot). 2 feet of water flooded Highway 12 and Ocracoke, while 20 people were stranded on Portsmouth Island. The HMS Bounty sank off the coast of North Carolina as well, and five sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway were shut down.

     We probably have enough surplus to pass our own bill to take care of it then. 'Tis a tragedy that other regions were not so fortunate as our own.

I've meant to do this before a few times but -  I think it's finally about time I step down. Someone else can probably devote more time to this than I can right now and do at least as well. I plan on transitioning out of the position of GM in the next couple weeks as soon as I wrap up a few things. 

You have a high approval rating according to the cabinet approval survey. You are leaving on a high note. Thank you for your work.

Sir, you did wonderful work, and had a great desire to do right by the people. I and we all know that sometimes real life simply dictates otherwise. Your fine work will be remembered and always appreciated and I hope to find myself working with you again soon. :)

Thank you for your service, you will be greatly missed.

You know it seems we can never get a good team of people in at one time for these Moderation positions. We get a SoIA worth a crap, and now we lose the GM.

We should hold an election

The GM is selected by the President & confirmed by the Senate, there is no election.

You knew what he meant. :P Just point him in the right direction next time, like Goldwater did.

I'll be doing a final budget update and jobs numbers in the next few days and then stepping down. sorry about the confusion.

Don't worry, Inks is the personification of everything bad about mods. His influence is everywhere. And while saying [inks] did apparently grow out of his censorship style, others censor just as much and it's really just a running gag now on the forum.

I dare you to read all that without quoting it or anything, Wolfenboy.

just zoom in, or read the site logs.

Damn you young'uns and your modern technology!

That's it then.

This thread exists. Make use of it.