The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Yelnoc]

Actually, I have a proposal.  In typing this up, I had a sudden urge for an IDS constitutional convention.  The wiki's a mess and it seems like much of our government structure is ill-defined.  Who's with me?

Jurisdiction of the Viceroy and Imperial Speaker

1.  Duties of the Viceroy

• If the currently serving Emperor is unable to fulfill his or her term the Viceroy will assume that position for the rest of the term.
• In his capacity as the president of the legislature, the Viceroy will bring bills proposed by an IDS legislator to vote and close the vote on said bills.
• If there is a vacancy in the legislature and a bill that has been put to vote receives one Aye and one Nay, the Viceroy is authorized to cast a tie-breaker vote.  This is the only case in which the Viceroy may cast a tie-breaker vote.
• The Viceroy will maintain the office of the IDS Registrar General.

2.  Duties of the Imperial Speaker

• The Imperial Speaker is third in the line of succession to the position of Emperor.
• In the absence of the Viceroy, the Imperial Speaker will assume the duties of the Viceroy; he or she will open and close the vote on bills and maintain the office of IDS Registrar General.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The Imperial Speaker also keeps tracks of bills in the queue. It's kind of a worthless duty, though we did have three bills in the queue at one point.

[Yelnoc]

I added the queue duty.  Any other suggestions?  If not, I will put it up to vote tomorrow.

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[Yelnoc]

Voting on the Jurisdiction of the Viceroy and Imperial Speaker is now open.  It will close in 24 hours.

[Yelnoc]

Aye.

[Dancing with Myself]

Aye

[Yelnoc]

The Jurisdiction of the Viceroy and Imperial Speaker act has passed and is awaiting the signature of Governor PiT.

[Yelnoc]

I support the proposed legislation...I think its important to have a succession process in place should the event arise...

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Care to explain?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     On the Jurisdiction of the Viceroy and Imperial Speaker Act: by the powers vested in me as Emperor of this region, I thus sign it into law.

     Be it resolved, X Emperor PiT

[Yelnoc]

I support the proposed legislation...I think its important to have a succession process in place should the event arise...

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Care to explain?

I had a change of heart about it...

Well...what did you disagree with?

I reformatted the below for you.

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Clause 3 is nonsensical; regions do not have military budgets.  I will not support clauses 1 or 2 until I know what the current rate of taxation in the IDS is, our current budget, and the size of our deficit or surplus.

[Dancing with Myself]

Reagan Bill

In honor of the former American President's birthday coming up on February 11th, I propose that we take some of this man's political philosophy and apply it to our region. Ronald Reagan made America believe in itself again as he took us on an eight year journey that resulted in economic prosperiety and American security in the world with the collapse of the soviet union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In honor of this great man, I propose the following:

-cutting taxes by 15% for middle and lower class people...cutting taxes by 10% for upper class people.

-raising military spending by 5%

While I agree with the Middle and lower class tax cuts, the upper class tax should be raised in my opinion.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I support the proposed legislation...I think its important to have a succession process in place should the event arise...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Care to explain?

I had a change of heart about it...

Well...what did you disagree with?

I reformatted the below for you.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Clause 3 is nonsensical; regions do not have military budgets.  I will not support clauses 1 or 2 until I know what the current rate of taxation in the IDS is, our current budget, and the size of our deficit or surplus.

     The IDS actually does have a regional militia. I don't see any possible sense in increasing the budget for it, seeing as how it essentially does nothing. The region is probably not going to get invaded anytime soon.

Reagan Bill

In honor of the former American President's birthday coming up on February 11th, I propose that we take some of this man's political philosophy and apply it to our region. Ronald Reagan made America believe in itself again as he took us on an eight year journey that resulted in economic prosperiety and American security in the world with the collapse of the soviet union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In honor of this great man, I propose the following:

-cutting taxes by 15% for middle and lower class people...cutting taxes by 10% for upper class people.

-raising military spending by 5%

While I agree with the Middle and lower class tax cuts, the upper class tax should be raised in my opinion.

     The federal income tax is already quite high, though, with a 60% marginal rate on the highest income bracket. I fear that raising taxes on the rich would likely hurt the regional economy.

[Yelnoc]

I say we shouldn't screw around with taxes at the regional level.  As far as I know we don't have a great surplus of steady income we can let tax cuts diminish.  Lobby for them at a federal level.

[Dancing with Myself]

Reagan Bill

In honor of the former American President's birthday coming up on February 11th, I propose that we take some of this man's political philosophy and apply it to our region. Ronald Reagan made America believe in itself again as he took us on an eight year journey that resulted in economic prosperiety and American security in the world with the collapse of the soviet union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In honor of this great man, I propose the following:

-cutting taxes by 15% for middle and lower class people...cutting taxes by 10% for upper class people.

-raising military spending by 5%

While I agree with the Middle and lower class tax cuts, the upper class tax should be raised in my opinion.

     The federal income tax is already quite high, though, with a 60% marginal rate on the highest income bracket. I fear that raising taxes on the rich would likely hurt the regional economy.
[/quote]

Oh my bad, well we should leave it like it is then

[Yelnoc]

While we wait for GPORTER to remember he is a legislator, I want to bring up the idea of a constitutional convention again.  Sections of our constitution are outdated or refer to other sections which have been deleted when the government shifted its structure years ago.  Included in the ConCon would be a general update of the wiki.  Is anyone else interested?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What exactly are you referring to in terms of outdated sections & dead references in the Constitution? If we are to revamp Constitution, it would be best to have a clear idea of what we are changing.

     Furthermore, we have a Constitution-as-amended, so if the changes are not too extensive then it could effectively be presented as an amendment.

[Yelnoc]

While we wait for GPORTER to remember he is a legislator, I want to bring up the idea of a constitutional convention again.  Sections of our constitution are outdated or refer to other sections which have been deleted when the government shifted its structure years ago.  Included in the ConCon would be a general update of the wiki.  Is anyone else interested?

I proposed legislation...what am I not doing that a legislature should?

Involve yourself in the debate on your bill.  Do you have a response to our rebuttals?

PiT, there aren't a lot of structural changes I would necessarily make, but there are still some things I would like to change.  Maybe I have OCD but the constitution is in need of a redraft.  For example, I would add a clause to Article IV to codify that initiative elections are to be skipped if no initiatives are proposed.  I would add KS21's Regional Census Bureau thingy into the constitution under the powers of the Lieutenant Governor.  I would switch put article VI at the bottom of the constitution (but before the Bill of Rights) and do some rephrasing in various areas for clarity. 

Then I would get into the Bill of Rights.  For example: "2.  All individuals have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights - among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting, property; and, in a word, of seeking and obtaining happiness. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this region."

I'm sure I could find more errors and weak spots if I really got into it.  While I was at it (with my hypothetical wiki-editing privileges) I would add some member pages and do some general updates. 

What do you guys think?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

[Yelnoc]

     What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

Because as it stands that clause can be interpreted to mean that an individual who does not hold property for whatever reason has the right to demand it from the government. 

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I would rather not open up a gaping hole in the budget to honor Reagan.  If you want we can make his birthday a regional holiday along with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and FDR.  Or we could just drop the hole issue since none of our presidents existed in Atlasia.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

Because as it stands that clause can be interpreted to mean that an individual who does not hold property for whatever reason has the right to demand it from the government. 

     Good point. Maybe change it to a right to possess property bestowed unto one's person?

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I would rather not open up a gaping hole in the budget to honor Reagan.  If you want we can make his birthday a regional holiday along with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and FDR.  Or we could just drop the hole issue since none of our presidents existed in Atlasia.

     At any rate, just saying that you change the taxation rate by x% doesn't really help, since we don't really know what the current taxation rate is. I think we ought to follow in the footsteps of the federal government & figure out what our taxation rate is & pass a bill to that effect, which shall be amended to effect any changes to the income tax rate in the future as is deemed necessary.

[Yelnoc]

     What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

Because as it stands that clause can be interpreted to mean that an individual who does not hold property for whatever reason has the right to demand it from the government. 

     Good point. Maybe change it to a right to possess property bestowed unto one's person?

But who is doing the bestowing?  I think it would be best to eliminate that word; the intended meaning is clearer without it.  But this is why I wanted a redraft, though what you just suggested should take priority.

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I would rather not open up a gaping hole in the budget to honor Reagan.  If you want we can make his birthday a regional holiday along with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and FDR.  Or we could just drop the hole issue since none of our presidents existed in Atlasia.
[/quote]

     At any rate, just saying that you change the taxation rate by x% doesn't really help, since we don't really know what the current taxation rate is. I think we ought to follow in the footsteps of the federal government & figure out what our taxation rate is & pass a bill to that effect, which shall be amended to effect any changes to the income tax rate in the future as is deemed necessary.
[/quote]

Let's do it.  First, what are our expenses?

[Associate Justice PiT]

    What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

Because as it stands that clause can be interpreted to mean that an individual who does not hold property for whatever reason has the right to demand it from the government.  

     Good point. Maybe change it to a right to possess property bestowed unto one's person?

But who is doing the bestowing?  I think it would be best to eliminate that word; the intended meaning is clearer without it.  But this is why I wanted a redraft, though what you just suggested should take priority.

     It ended up being rather clunkily phrased indeed.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I would rather not open up a gaping hole in the budget to honor Reagan.  If you want we can make his birthday a regional holiday along with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and FDR.  Or we could just drop the hole issue since none of our presidents existed in Atlasia.

     At any rate, just saying that you change the taxation rate by x% doesn't really help, since we don't really know what the current taxation rate is. I think we ought to follow in the footsteps of the federal government & figure out what our taxation rate is & pass a bill to that effect, which shall be amended to effect any changes to the income tax rate in the future as is deemed necessary.
[/quote]

Let's do it.  First, what are our expenses?
[/quote]

     At last, $630,000,000,000. That was a long time ago, though. At any rate, I think that our tax code is probably roughly the same as that of Georgia, since our law is based on Georgian law. There have likely been some changes, though; that would have to be investigated.

[Yelnoc]

    What's wrong with a right to possess property, aside from the fact that it is refuted by the existence of taxation?

Because as it stands that clause can be interpreted to mean that an individual who does not hold property for whatever reason has the right to demand it from the government.  

     Good point. Maybe change it to a right to possess property bestowed unto one's person?

But who is doing the bestowing?  I think it would be best to eliminate that word; the intended meaning is clearer without it.  But this is why I wanted a redraft, though what you just suggested should take priority.

     It ended up being rather clunkily phrased indeed.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I would rather not open up a gaping hole in the budget to honor Reagan.  If you want we can make his birthday a regional holiday along with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Polk, and FDR.  Or we could just drop the hole issue since none of our presidents existed in Atlasia.

     At any rate, just saying that you change the taxation rate by x% doesn't really help, since we don't really know what the current taxation rate is. I think we ought to follow in the footsteps of the federal government & figure out what our taxation rate is & pass a bill to that effect, which shall be amended to effect any changes to the income tax rate in the future as is deemed necessary.

Let's do it.  First, what are our expenses?
[/quote]

     At last, $630,000,000,000. That was a long time ago, though. At any rate, I think that our tax code is probably roughly the same as that of Georgia, since our law is based on Georgian law. There have likely been some changes, though; that would have to be investigated.
[/quote]

Alright.  I motion that we table the GPORTER's bill and move ahead with an investigation into the Southeast's budget and tax code.  First we should make a commission to officially look into it so that we can't just quietly stop investigating when this work starts to get real difficult.  To that end I propose the following.

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Thoughts?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Actually naming who'll serve on the commission is a great idea. We once created a commission for updating the Wiki, but nothing ever happened with that, largely due to the fact that it was an essentially open-ended commitment.

[Yelnoc]

Alright then.  I will put this up to vote before I go to sleep tonight to give tb75 and GPORTER some time to voice any objections.  In the meantime, where did you get your $630 billion figure from?