The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I just realized how enormous the region's revenues & expenditures are. That's about 20x the size of the budget of California, yet it is composed of ten states, all of which are quite a bit smaller than California.

     So the question is, will $2 billion be enough to fund it? Google hasn't enabled me to find good numbers on the number of college students in the South. It also occurred to me that the wording is rather vague about the conditions of receiving a tax credit. Might the family of someone from out-of-region attending college here receive a tax credit?

I was thinking that since it's money from our taxpayers, they should be the only ones getting the credit. However, I do think that a family that pays taxes here should be eligible if their student is attending college out of region.

Though all the information I've found in Google is relatively vague, I do recall seeing a statistic that roughly 2.5-3 million enter into community college or a 4 year college as freshman each year, meaning probably 10-12 million are eligible in the United States as a whole. Divide that by 5, and the number ranges from 2 to 2.4 million students eligible each year. While I'm not sure exactly what the expense would be, or how many full versus part-time students that would entail, I'd calculate that at max, it'd cost 2.4 billion, assuming that every student is full time, and the high-end number is the actual number. However, due to there being I'm sure a large number of part-time students, it probably wouldn't take up the whole surplus.

     Well I am rather satisfied. We ought to formalize our discussions into an amendment. I also suggest you clearly define eligibility, since a devious lawyer may argue that a resident of another region attending college in another region would be entitled to a tax credit. While it would be a rather ludicrous claim to make, it would not be inconsistent with the current wording of the bill & I would rather we not take our chances in court on the matter.

[Deldem]

How's this? Any final amendments, or ones that I missed in the revised version?

Southeastern Educational Incentive Act
1. The Southeast shall provide a $1,000 tax credit per student, indexed to the Atlasian rate of inflation of currency, to all households who have a member enrolled in an institute of higher learning full-time, and a $500 tax credit, indexed to the Atlasian rate of inflation of currency, to a member enrolled part-time. An institute of higher learning shall be defined as any accredited trade school, community college, four-year college, or university.
2. The credit provided shall not exceed the total value of the income tax assessed. (i.e. taxation cannot be less than $0)
3. A full-time student shall be deemed any student who successfully completes a total of 24 credit hours per year, or completes 12 credit hours per semester.
4. A part-time student  shall be deemed any student who successfully completes at least 6, but no more than 23 credit hours per year, or who completes at least 3, but no more than 11, credit hours per semester.
5. This law shall take effect starting for students enrolled within institutes of higher learning during the semester starting in the Fall of 2010.
6. In order to be eligible for the credit, households must be based within the Southeast, though students may study elsewhere.
7. In addition, this credit shall only apply to those households whose annual income after charitable and other deductions is $250,000 or below. This value also shall be indexed to the Atlasian rate of inflation of currency.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What if we indexed the value of the tax credit to the rate of inflation as well?

[Deldem]

     What if we indexed the value of the tax credit to the rate of inflation as well?

Excellent idea, I've amended the bill in the above post to reflect it.

[Yelnoc]

Looks good to me.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I am satisfied with how it looks now. I think now is a good time to go to a final vote.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Here's the relevant link on the surplus. It'll be good to have it in here for reference later if we need it:

Regional News

Regional Budgets Released
Southeast: This region has revenue of $632 billion and expenses of $630 billion, resulting in a surplus of $2 billion. The surplus is mostly a result of increased taxation, in addition to crisis funds from the federal government. The Southeast has also had success curbing lavish expenditures that had been typical of the region before the creation of the Southeast Legislature. It is recommended that surplus revenue be used predominantly to help the continued troubled industries in the Southeast through a combination of tax cuts/credits and subsidies.

Previous budget report of the Mideast.

And I'll agree with you that income minus deductions is a fair deal.

The era of lavish parties is over in the Southeast? Such a shame. I guess the time are a changing for real. I do remember those wild evenings at the Governor's Plantation back in the day. I know PiT does too.

[Deldem]

Here's the relevant link on the surplus. It'll be good to have it in here for reference later if we need it:

Regional News

Regional Budgets Released
Southeast: This region has revenue of $632 billion and expenses of $630 billion, resulting in a surplus of $2 billion. The surplus is mostly a result of increased taxation, in addition to crisis funds from the federal government. The Southeast has also had success curbing lavish expenditures that had been typical of the region before the creation of the Southeast Legislature. It is recommended that surplus revenue be used predominantly to help the continued troubled industries in the Southeast through a combination of tax cuts/credits and subsidies.

Previous budget report of the Mideast.

And I'll agree with you that income minus deductions is a fair deal.

The era of lavish parties is over in the Southeast? Such a shame. I guess the time are a changing for real. I do remember those wild evenings at the Governor's Plantation back in the day. I know PiT does too.

Next up? BYOB to all regional functions.

[Dancing with Myself]

The Vote is open for the bill

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Aye

[Deldem]

Aye.

[Dancing with Myself]

The bill is passed and is ready for signature/veto

[CatoMinor]

Southeastern Educational Incentive Act

X Jbrase

[CatoMinor]

I believe we should get to Darth Dibble's The Supreme Judicial Overlord's bill before we anger him and he goes on a rampage destroying the Capitol with his mighty gavel.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Any formal change would require a Constitutional amendment, which is outside the scope of this body. I suppose that we could pass a law stating that our name is something else, though.

     The issue is, I gave that bill a space behind the budget bill, so we would need to pass a motion to moveit up to debate it first. As such, I would like to motion to move the bill concerning the name of the Legislature to the front of the queue.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Well it seems my motion was not terribly popular. Perhaps we should take care of the bills in their pre-existing order?

[Deldem]

     Well it seems my motion was not terribly popular. Perhaps we should take care of the bills in their pre-existing order?

Eh, we could talk about evilness. Perhaps the speaker could be known as Emperor?

[CatoMinor]

     Well it seems my motion was not terribly popular. Perhaps we should take care of the bills in their pre-existing order?

Eh, we could talk about evilness. Perhaps the speaker could be known as Emperor?

ahem,  if anyone gets that title It should be the Governor (not that I'm an imperialist authoritarian or anything )

How about Dark Lord of the House?

[Yelnoc]

So we're working on the names bill?  How about:
Emperor - Governor
Master _ -  Lt. Governor
Dark Lord of the House - SotH
Darth _ - Other two Representatives

[Dancing with Myself]

So we're working on the names bill?  How about:
Emperor - Governor
Master _ -  Lt. Governor
Dark Lord of the House - SotH
Darth _ - Other two Representatives

I like it, it is a epically evil/creative group of names

[Yelnoc]

So we're working on the names bill?  How about:
Emperor - Governor
Master _ -  Lt. Governor
Dark Lord of the House - SotH
Darth _ - Other two Representatives

I like it, it is a epically evil/creative group of names

You could be Sith Master, Sith Lord, or just plain Lord if a simple "Master" doesn't sound starwarsy enough.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It is difficult to come up with a good one for Lt. Governor, since the hierarchical structure of the Empire isn't all that clear. "Governor" seems viable, after Governor Tarkin, who presided over the first Death Star. That could be highly confusing, though.

[CatoMinor]

PiT and I came up with this what do you guys think of this as an amendment to vote on in the regional voting booth?

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[Deldem]

PiT and I came up with this what do you guys think of this as an amendment to vote on in the regional voting booth?

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We should be the Southeastern Empire. Republics are for the non-evil.

[CatoMinor]

PiT and I came up with this what do you guys think of this as an amendment to vote on in the regional voting booth?

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We should be the Southeastern Empire. Republics are for the non-evil.

amended