The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The Plantation has never been a dry zone, and I refuse to vote for any bill that forces that upon its shoulders.

And as for this bill, while I do think we need to get rid of dry counties, I think local municipalities should be allowed to sell alcohol whenever they wish. Like, if an urban area wants to keep bars open till 3 or later, hell, they should! Lord knows I've had plenty of times where I wanted to keep drinking and they forced me out.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Right. There's nothing worse than a dry county.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Okay. I didn't read all the dribble Drabble but I'd like to know if the current bill allows for local governments to set their own times - like if an urban area wants to stay open later than 2am they can, etc. If that's allowable then I am supportive of the bill. I'm on my phone now but I can somewhat read posts.

From what I gather, this sets a baseline regulation for the sale of alcohol and forbids dry counties, correct? If so, lets vote. My biggest wish here is to allow for more leeway for local governments and I'm fine with the rest. We need a uniform system merely because the government already controls licenses for selling alcohol and its distribution to customers.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Lovely. I'm all set to vote.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

In terms of public safety, I find dry counties inherently bad for society because they encourage drunk driving which puts everyone else at risk. So for The People if anything else, we need this bill. In fact, I believe DUI's are far more common in dry counties than in wet ones.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

http://www.dwi-austin-tx.com/sitedir.buford_gonzalez.com/DryCounties.aspx

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/InTheNews/DrinkingAndDriving/20060517124659.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/duis-wet-counties-versus-dry-counties

I'm on my iPhone so I can't pull up many other articles. But it's clear this bill is about public safety. People are going to drink regardless of whether their county is wet or dry. The only difference is if we're a dry county, they'll just drive to a bar in another county and then risk driving back, which is something we don't want to encourage.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Aye

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Of course. The beauty of tipped positions is the fun of hiding that income from the IRS.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Slow week here in the ole legislature.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The minimum wage of 12.50 at the federal level is already way too high but that's neither here nor there.

Aye

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

It truly is the end of times.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I welcome my new overlord. Please don't be too hard on us.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Who will lead us if you leave??

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Are we back in session?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I thought he left the IDS? Or is he still up for reelection next time?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Far be it from me to try and tie it up like last time. Give Ben the speakership. I'm eager to welcome his reign!

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Just hypothetically speaking, if we abolish the income tax, where will government revenue come from? Are you advocating increasing the sales tax? Cutting spending to the bare bones?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Well, as it stands, we would have to add a lot to this bill before it should be voted on. If we followed a model like Florida, for example, which also does not have an income tax, I sure the size of this bill will at least double.

But it would be reckless to pass it in its current form. And I don't really favor steep cuts in government spending, especially all at once.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I don't know the current tax rates here, but I inherently oppose a flat tax simply because its regressive on our lower income citizens. I do favor lowering rates though if we can afford it, which it sounds as if we can having a $36 b surplus.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I don't know the current tax rates here, but I inherently oppose a flat tax simply because its regressive on our lower income citizens. I do favor lowering rates though if we can afford it, which it sounds as if we can having a $36 b surplus.

     I should have a more in-depth analysis up tonight, though I will point out that our current income tax is already very nearly flat. The top bracket of 6% comes at just $7,000 for single returns and $10,000 for joint returns.

OK. I've never been a huge fan of flat taxes/consumption taxes. I will wait for your analysis. Perhaps we can move to cut taxes, especially on lower incomes, as a compromise to ridding us of it altogether.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Right now we bring in $69b via the income tax and we are running a $12b surplus, yes? How does that change if we do as you propose? I am not on a computer to really run the numbers. Right now it's 5.8%. Perhaps we should consider cutting it? Not completely though. I am still not sold on a consumption tax. I need to read up on Texas and Florida and see exactly how they do it before I can be sold on such a plan.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

What will we cut from our budget though? And what effect would it have on our economy to have such a big cut all at once?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Are we keeping the corporate tax? Texas places a franchise tax on gross margins of all their corporations, and Florida has a 5.5% corporate tax despite having no income tax. I don't think I can support eliminating all taxes in the IDS. I'd be much more in favor of reducing the corporate tax and potentially dropping our state income tax to 5%, which is in line with other states. A lower corporate tax would encourage job creation as much as eliminating the income tax and keeping a higher corporate income tax.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Texas has zero. If we want to outcompete the mideast - we should consider emulating Texas on our corporate tax rate or at least splitting the difference between the two.

See, this is where you are mistaken I think. From what I read, Texas has a franchise tax on corporations. I don't see how doing that would help grow businesses. I know Texas has seen a boom in business, yes, but it is inconclusive as to whether its all due to the tax policies of things like cheap labor, land, capital, etc.

But I'm not one to favor eliminating income taxes while keeping our corporate and business rates at 5.8%, which is actually high, to compensate.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

We may as well talk about it here. I wonder why no one else is participating in this debate?

Anyway, so hypothetically speaking, if we eliminate both corporate and income taxes, how do we pay for it? As far as I can tell, no state has a policy like that. We'd have to switch to a consumption tax, and that is inherently something I cannot support. You said a 5% cut across the board. Would that even be possible without upsetting something?