Mideast Assembly Thread

[California8429]

I'm pretty good with the Infrastructure portion. A-Bob, if I may ask, how did you come up with these numbers?

Virginia. And then considered how many more states we had. It's pretty hard since we are neither a state nor federal government to look off of either budget

If possible, do you think you could provide me with a link to where you got Virginia's budget? Or possibly just the numbers there? Thank you.

http://dpb.virginia.gov/budget/budget.cfm

[California8429]

The infrastructure section seems fine to me.

Since education has always been a big priority with this Assembly, shall we do this next?

[California8429]

Well I don't have anything planned, but let's start throwing out ideas.

Starting teacher salary $40,000? Are we going to base salaries merit-based, by experience or or both?
"Small" classes (K-12) let's aim for 20-25
How much would up to date books and technology cost?

[California8429]

$40,000 seems like a good start. And if someone, perhaps you Barnes can make up some system where we reward merit, experience and college education while making sure those in urban settings with tough conditions don't lose tenure just because they have bad kids. I think that's fair if we can draw it up. $40,000-$60,000.

K-12 15-20 sounds good.

Maybe we can completly replace everything over two budgets so we'll buy half things new this time around, half next time and then have a dramatic decrease in education for a while.

Anything else we should cover?

[California8429]

Please, while that possibility does exist, I doubt it would ever lead to the extreme you think it would. Also, the teacher or teachers doing that would swiftly be fired. And, if you don't think that the punishment would be implemented, we could easily put it in as a provision in the budget.

I actually just had a conversation with my mother over this. Why not get advice from a teacher?

"Mom, if a law was implemented where your salary was based on student performance don't you think many teachers would boost their students grades and not challenge them because they won't want to risk having a salary cut?"
"Of course teachers would. Teachers would stop challenging their students to succeed and wouldn't grade as hard as they normally would."

I know this isn't a perfect example, but I'm just trying to show you that it would exist. I'd have a very hard time agreeing with this portion of the budget with the percentages you suggested, to be honest.

Another issue: Sometimes teachers get stuck with a bad class. Last year, 6 of the 12 students in my Mom's class had IEP's. Why should she be slapped with a salary cut for that?

exactly my thinking. I think there shoul be SOME portion of a salary based on merit, but I like the Governor's numbers better.

[California8429]

How about 38% based on experience, 32% based on degree of education, and 30% based on merit for compromise?

[California8429]

Alright, so are we going to split funding up by class? I'm thinking higher education should be a seperate discussion from k-12.

Do we want funds to be decided like
$____science technology
$____science teachers
$____AP science classes
$____science materials
$____other

[California8429]

Alright, so are we going to split funding up by class? I'm thinking higher education should be a seperate discussion from k-12.

Do we want funds to be decided like
$____science technology
$____science teachers
$____AP science classes
$____science materials
$____other

That seems alright to me. However, we might need to clarify "other."

Well other can change per specific class if there's anything that one would have over the over

[California8429]

Also consider this: How many years is the Virginia budget for? If we're doing each budget every four years, we'll need to multiply again by two or four.

since that specific piece is so important. I think we need to discuss a national vote to decide does one month equal one month or one year as this will effect all spending and if we aren't unified in this decision everything is thrown off

[California8429]

Also consider this: How many years is the Virginia budget for? If we're doing each budget every four years, we'll need to multiply again by two or four.

since that specific piece is so important. I think we need to discuss a national vote to decide does one month equal one month or one year as this will effect all spending and if we aren't unified in this decision everything is thrown off

I think we need to consider each term as four years. That'll produce some big numbers in our budget which will scare people at first, but people will just have to be reminded that it is for four years, not one.

Alright. Let's hope the Senate as well as other regions as they start to creat budgets, do the same

[California8429]

Hey guys, we need to make some decisions. Like whether we're going by months or years, etc.

I apologize for my recent inactivity.

I'm not really sure about the length issue. I'd like to hear some ideas.

I really don't care as long as we go as the same as the federal senate. Infrastructure funding is set up as something for 1 year

[California8429]

Alright. Four months is fourth months then. To start, let's cut infrastructure down to 1/4 of all funding

[California8429]

So now, would we like to divy up the budget to the 5 members?

We need to resolve who's dealing with which parts of the bill, then.

How about we all just call out what we want to work on? That way nobody has to do anything they really don't want

[California8429]

Updated (Cut by 1/4)
Infrastructure
$7.3 billion for improvement and maintenance to roads, highways, and airports.
$725 million for construction to roads, highways, and airports.
$3.25 billion for improvement, maintenance and construction of mass transit including buses, subways, trains.
$1.875 billion for improvement and maintenance of water and sewer infrastructure.
$250 million for construction of water and sewer infrastructure.

[California8429]

yup

[California8429]

Energy
Total: $2.85 Billion
$1 Billion: Fund for alternative energy¹
$1 Billion: Updating the Mideast's current energy infrastructure²
$500 Million: Refitting all government buildings to run on clean energy
$250 Million: Refitting all government vehicles (cars, planes, etc.) to run on clean energy
 
¹This is where all projects like my "Affordable Energy and Environmental Protection Act" must draw their government funds from.

²This means making power stations that run off fossil fuels more efficient and more environmentally friendly. It also updates our electrical energy grid by making the system more efficient and less cumbersome.

What about a section for energy development loans? Besides alternative energy?

Can we set aside $5-10 billion for that? Mainly my concern is a nuclear power plant costs so much and we aren't going to get to an alernative energy society in one year or even one decade.

[California8429]

Energy
Total: $2.85 Billion
$1 Billion: Fund for alternative energy¹
$1 Billion: Updating the Mideast's current energy infrastructure²
$500 Million: Refitting all government buildings to run on clean energy
$250 Million: Refitting all government vehicles (cars, planes, etc.) to run on clean energy
 
¹This is where all projects like my "Affordable Energy and Environmental Protection Act" must draw their government funds from.

²This means making power stations that run off fossil fuels more efficient and more environmentally friendly. It also updates our electrical energy grid by making the system more efficient and less cumbersome.

What about a section for energy development loans? Besides alternative energy?

Can we set aside $5-10 billion for that? Mainly my concern is a nuclear power plant costs so much and we aren't going to get to an alernative energy society in one year or even one decade.

I'm in favor of loans, however, I believe we can still make them work for alternative energy. For example, wing turbines on the Great Lakes, or solar panels in our prairies. These types of energy are already developed and are proven to work. Also, they have the positive effect of creating new, green jobs.

I'm with you, I'm just saying can you add a  section for other loans as well?

[California8429]

Energy
Total: $2.85 Billion
$2 Billion: Loans to be granted to energy companies that have a responsible environmental track record and are seriously attempting to develop clean energy alternatives.
$1 Billion: Fund for alternative energy
$1 Billion: Updating the Mideast's current energy infrastructure
$500 Million: Refitting all government buildings to run on clean energy
$250 Million: Refitting all government vehicles (cars, planes, etc.) to run on clean energy

So, basically, the new section gives loans to fossil fuel emitters who have a good environmental record and are in the process of developing clean energy fuels. Thankfully, this would be many businesses in the ME.

Can we change the language to - Loans to be granted to energy companies that have a responsible environmental track record, are seriously attempting to develop clean energy alternatives, push for energy efficiency and/or have an approved plan to do so. And can we move it to 3 billion?

[California8429]

We figured if we decided our spending levels, then we could go onto setting taxes to have enough revenue.

[California8429]

Thank you, now we have a sorta set-up of how we should divide our funds. Over the weekend I'll be able to work on an overall picture

[California8429]

We figured if we decided our spending levels, then we could go onto setting taxes to have enough revenue.

You too are a socialist, A-Bob ?!?

BTW, congratulations to our Assemblymen for this big job.

I was under the thinking that we'd be spending less than 500-600 billion a year as was our last report I believe

[California8429]

I'm halfway there, basing off of the federal budget. Is the federal budget set up for 1 year? As in 4 months in Atlasia=1 year, 4 years?

[California8429]

bumping my question

[California8429]

Here's a rough idea of what I have so far, I only took half the budget from the federal, but it gives us something to look at for now.
Spending ($0000.00 billion)

Energy ($5.85  billion)
$3 Billion ...... Loans to be granted to energy companies that have a responsible environmental track record, are seriously attempting to develop clean energy alternatives, push for energy efficiency and/or have an approved plan to do so.
$1 Billion  ...... Fund for alternative energy
$1 Billion  ...... Updating the Mideast's current energy infrastructure
$0.5 Billion  ...... Refitting all government buildings to run on clean energy
$0.25 Billion  ...... Refitting all government vehicles (cars, planes, etc.) to run on clean energy)

Natural resources and environment ($00.00 billion)
$2.61 billion ...... Water resources (No Change)
$0.57 billion ...... Conservation and land management (No Change)
$0.42 billion ...... Recreational & Park resources (No Change)
$1.11 billion ...... Pollution control and abatement (No Change)
$0.5 billion ....... Other natural resources (No Change)

Agriculture ($00.00 billion)
$2.95 billion ..... Farm income stabilization & crop insurance (No Change)
$1.09 billion ...... Agricultural research and services (No Change)

Commerce and Housing Loan Programs ($0.0 billion)
$0.34 billion ..... Housing Loan Programs (No Change)
$0.02 billion ..... Deposit insurance (No Change)
$1.36 billion ...... Universal service fund (No Change)
$0.23 billion ...... Other advancement of commerce (No Change)

Transportation ($00.00 billion)
$7.51 billion ..... Highways and highway safety (No Change)
$3.25 billion ...... Mass transit (No Change)
$0.11 billion ...... Railroads (No Change)
$2.06 billion ..... Air Transportation (No Change)
$0.87 billion ...... Water transportation (No Change)
$0.42 billion ...... Other transportation (No Change)

Community and regional development ($0.0 billion)
$2.50 billion ...... Community development (No Change)
$0.96 billion ...... Area and regional development (No Change)
$0.93 billion ...... Disaster relief and insurance (No Change)

Education ($00.00 billion)
$19.12 billion ..... Elementary, Secondary & Vocational education (No Change)
$12.97 billion ..... Higher education (No Change)
$3.03 billion ...... Research and general education (No Change)

Training, labor and unemployment ($0.00 billion)
$4.34 billion ...... Training and employment (No Change)
$0.3 billion ....... Labor law, statistics, and other administration (No Change)
$4.83 billion ..... Unemployment compensation (No Change)

Health Spending ($00.00 billion)
$35.87 billion .... Medicaid grants (No Change)
$1.03 billion ...... State Children's Health Insurance (No Change)
$0.99 billion ...... Indian health (No Change)
$1.01 billion ...... Substance abuse and mental health services (No Change)
$0.97 billion ....... Disease control, public health and bioterrorism (No Change)
$8.45 billion ..... Health research and training (No Change)
$0.89 billion ...... Food safety and occupational health and safety (No Change)
$2.05 billion ..... Other health care services (No Change)
$7.01 billion ...... Prescription drug benefit (No Change)
$0.98 billion ...... Health care fraud (No Change)

Civilian Retirement (Social Security excluded) ($00.00 billion)
$0.3 billion ...... Civilian retirement and disability insurance (No Change)
$9.00 billion ..... Mideast employee retirement and disability (No Change)
$1.20 billion ...... Mideast employees' and retired employees' health benefits (No Change)

[California8429]

Input? hopefully I can get the rest of the spending done by the end of this weekend, crunch the numbers, get our total then proceed to the first draft of taxes.