IDS Budget and Tax Committee

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

[Yelnoc]

    Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

Yeah, I have been trying to think of ways around that.  If it's ok with Badger, we can add another item to the revenue category named "Moderator Credit" or some such.  This would consist of enough money for that $200 billion surplus to have been true in April 2010 when it was assigned.  However, each month $10 billion would be automatically deducted until the category was whittled down to zero, where it would likely remain.  In the future it can be used for adjustments and budgets that need to temporarily deviate from reality for whatever reason.

Under that plan, the IDS would be down to $90 billion in moderator credit; $0 would be reached in December 2011.

EDIT: Actually, it will take a tad more that $200 billion to create a $200 billion surplus (duh!).  Instead of subtracting a $10 billion a month, we should subtract 5% of that original number.  If it's ok with you PiT, I will PM Badger about this.

Also, looking at the bills and initiatives that need to be integrated into our budget, I think we will need to add all of the subheadings.   

[Associate Justice PiT]

     PMing Badger is fine with me. As for adding the bills & initiatives, I suspect that that might improve our standing if anything, given that the region has not passed that many spending bills.

[Yelnoc]

Note that Puerto Rico is not including in the Base numbers.  Base numbers are derived from this site and are the aggregate totals of the following states; AL,AR,FL,GA,LA,MS,NC,SC,TN,TX.

Note also that each base has an implied subheading.  In the future, this will most likely need to be calculated.  The bills and their relevant information are sorted by their implied subheading (the italicized bullet).  If the bill falls under a sub-subheading, that is indicated like such: Subheading/Subheading.

If you have any complaints about where I have placed certain pieces of a legislature, please tell me.

Spending

Pensions
-Base: $3.81 billion

Health care:
-Base: $121.9 billion

Education:
-Base: $73.4 billion (assuming Section 1 of the School Choice Initiative does not invalidate it)
-Tertiary Education/Other Capital Outlay-Higher Education/Southeastern Educational Incentive Act: $3.5 billion
-Pre-Primary through Secondary Education/Other Capital Outlay - Elementary and Secondary Education/School Choice Initiative: $56.4 billion
-Total: $133.3 billion

Defense:
-Base: $0.6 billion

Welfare:
-Base: $40.4 billion

Protection:
-Base: $21.5 billion

Transportation:
-Base: $28.2 billion

General government:
-Base: $7.4 billion

Other spending:
-Base: $18.7 billion
-Cultural Services/Pentagram Creation Act
-Total: ?

Interest:
-Base: $7.4 billion

Balance:
-Base: -$4.4 billion

Σ
-Base: $352.1 billion

Revenue

Income Taxes:
-Base: $35.6 billion
-Corporate Income Tax/Tax-Corporate Net Income/Put the "free" back in Free Enterprise Bill
-Corporate Income Tax/Tax-Corporate Net Income/Southeast Nuclear Energy Initiative, Chapter 4
-Corporate Tax Rate: 8.6%
-Personal Income Tax Rate: effectively 6%
-Total: ?

Social Security Taxes:  
-Base: $15.1 billion

Ad-valorem Taxes:
-Base: $252.3 billion
-Excise Taxes/Tax-Alcoholic Beverage Sales/Southeast Alcohol Initiative, Section 8: $1.00/proof liter
-Excise Taxes/Tax-Tobacco Products Sales/Southeast Tobacco Initiative, Section 6: $0.04/cigarette, $0.08/cigar, $2.00/kg tobacco
-Excise Taxes/Tax-Marijuana Products Sales: $3.00/ounce
-Sales Taxes/Tax-Public Utilities Sale/Southeast Nuclear Energy Initiative, Chapter 4: 80% of standard electricity excise tax
-Sales Taxes/Tax-Public Utilities Sale/Southeast Biomass Initiative, Section 3: 80% of standard electricity excise tax
-Property Taxes/Tax-Property/Southeast Nuclear Energy Initiative, Chapter 4
-Transportation/Tax-Motor Fuel Sales/Transportation Commission Initiative, Chapter 3, Section 22: $0.08/liter
-Transportation/Tax-Motor Vehicle License/Fair Consequences Initiative, Section 3
-License/Tax-Other License/Off-Shore Religious Organizations Initiative, Section 2
-Total: ?

Fees and Charges:
-Base: $107 billion
-Other/Charges-All Other/Pentagram Creation Act
-Other/Charges-All Other/Safe Roads Initiative, Section 6
-Total: ?

Business and Other Revenue:
-Base: $132.5 billion
-Other/Miscellaneous-Net Lottery Revenue/Southeast Lottery Regulations, Section 6 (Amended by Expanding Choice Initiative)
-Total: ?

Total Direct Revenue:
-base: $544.5 billion

Gross Public Debt:
-Base: $598.7 billion

[Yelnoc]

I am unsure of what to do with the stimulus money.  The sections that allocated money for the construction of different power generating facilities did not provide money for the continued maintenance of said facilities so we will have to calculate that somehow. 

Also, if anyone in the IDS (heck, anyone who's reading this) is feeling helpful, could you find budget statistics for Puerto Rico?  Preferably with breakdowns similar to this website but anything will do.

[Yelnoc]

     Sections 6 & 7 of the Expanding Choice Initiative, as passed on July 18, 2005:
6. The Southeast shall also establish a Regional Education Tax to subsidize the Lottery Education Fund. This tax may only be collected to finance the Student Scholarships and all profits will be added directly to the Southeast Lottery Education Fund.

7. The amount of the Regional Education Tax shall be determined every fiscal year by dividing the monetary needs of the School System, minus the funds in the Lottery Education Fund, by each Resident of the Southeast.

I am not quite sure what to do with this.  The authors of this bill did not indicate what kind of tax they wanted.  I think we will have to decide this in the legislature.

[Yelnoc]

Ok, all of the bills and initiatives posted in this thread have been added to the budget, barring the cases mentioned in the above two posts and the Transportation Fund which I was also not sure what to do with.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     From the Southeast Lottery Regulations,

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     If I am reading it right, education gets funds from 90% of lottery revenue & anything left unpaid for is handled by the Education Tax.

[Badger]

    Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

Yeah, I have been trying to think of ways around that.  If it's ok with Badger, we can add another item to the revenue category named "Moderator Credit" or some such.  This would consist of enough money for that $200 billion surplus to have been true in April 2010 when it was assigned.  However, each month $10 billion would be automatically deducted until the category was whittled down to zero, where it would likely remain.  In the future it can be used for adjustments and budgets that need to temporarily deviate from reality for whatever reason.

Under that plan, the IDS would be down to $90 billion in moderator credit; $0 would be reached in December 2011.

EDIT: Actually, it will take a tad more that $200 billion to create a $200 billion surplus (duh!).  Instead of subtracting a $10 billion a month, we should subtract 5% of that original number.  If it's ok with you PiT, I will PM Badger about this.

Also, looking at the bills and initiatives that need to be integrated into our budget, I think we will need to add all of the subheadings.   

Hmmmmm. I'll have to think about this. Actually many states do have a rainy day fund. And while $200 billion may seem a lot, spread out over 10 southern states (including TX and FL)? Maybe not that farfetched.

Anyone have an idea (or willing to check) what the southern states RL rainy day fund (or equivilent) status is like?

[Yelnoc]

    Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

Yeah, I have been trying to think of ways around that.  If it's ok with Badger, we can add another item to the revenue category named "Moderator Credit" or some such.  This would consist of enough money for that $200 billion surplus to have been true in April 2010 when it was assigned.  However, each month $10 billion would be automatically deducted until the category was whittled down to zero, where it would likely remain.  In the future it can be used for adjustments and budgets that need to temporarily deviate from reality for whatever reason.

Under that plan, the IDS would be down to $90 billion in moderator credit; $0 would be reached in December 2011.

EDIT: Actually, it will take a tad more that $200 billion to create a $200 billion surplus (duh!).  Instead of subtracting a $10 billion a month, we should subtract 5% of that original number.  If it's ok with you PiT, I will PM Badger about this.

Also, looking at the bills and initiatives that need to be integrated into our budget, I think we will need to add all of the subheadings.   

Hmmmmm. I'll have to think about this. Actually many states do have a rainy day fund. And while $200 billion may seem a lot, spread out over 10 southern states (including TX and FL)? Maybe not that farfetched.

Anyone have an idea (or willing to check) what the southern states RL rainy day fund (or equivilent) status is like?

This website provides a graph showing the percentage of annual expenditures in 2008 that went into a rainy day fund.  Georgia, the state which IDS law is based off of, devoted between 5% and 10% of its annual expenditures to a rainy day fund.  Assuming that 10% of the IDS budget was added as a rainy day fund, that would create a rainy day fund of $32.21 billion.  Probably not enough to offset the deficit but it's something.

[Badger]

    Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

Yeah, I have been trying to think of ways around that.  If it's ok with Badger, we can add another item to the revenue category named "Moderator Credit" or some such.  This would consist of enough money for that $200 billion surplus to have been true in April 2010 when it was assigned.  However, each month $10 billion would be automatically deducted until the category was whittled down to zero, where it would likely remain.  In the future it can be used for adjustments and budgets that need to temporarily deviate from reality for whatever reason.

Under that plan, the IDS would be down to $90 billion in moderator credit; $0 would be reached in December 2011.

EDIT: Actually, it will take a tad more that $200 billion to create a $200 billion surplus (duh!).  Instead of subtracting a $10 billion a month, we should subtract 5% of that original number.  If it's ok with you PiT, I will PM Badger about this.

Also, looking at the bills and initiatives that need to be integrated into our budget, I think we will need to add all of the subheadings.   

Hmmmmm. I'll have to think about this. Actually many states do have a rainy day fund. And while $200 billion may seem a lot, spread out over 10 southern states (including TX and FL)? Maybe not that farfetched.

Anyone have an idea (or willing to check) what the southern states RL rainy day fund (or equivalent) status is like?

This website provides a graph showing the percentage of annual expenditures in 2008 that went into a rainy day fund.  Georgia, the state which IDS law is based off of, devoted between 5% and 10% of its annual expenditures to a rainy day fund.  Assuming that 10% of the IDS budget was added as a rainy day fund, that would create a rainy day fund of $32.21 billion.  Probably not enough to offset the deficit but it's something.

Looking at the underlying data for that graph, it appears Georgia's rainy day fund was only at 5.3% of its annual expenditures. Most other IDS states varied from Arkansas (zilch) to Texas (10.2%).

I have studiously determined that the $200 Billion surplus appears, sadly, to have primarily resulted from accounting errors and overestimation of future receipts which were heavily decimated by the recession. There's also mysterious withdrawls to a Cayman Islands account simply listed under "NCYnk".

Even 10% I'm afraid is not realistic when only Texas meets that level in RL. That said, based on TX having a hugely disproportionate share of regional revenues, some other states being in the 5-10% range, plus a bonus for Yelnoc finding this website and doing preliminary calculations (that's always looked upon favorably by the GM's Office ), I'll put the IDS Rainy Day Fund balance at exactly (coincidentally) $25 Bil (or nearly 8% of annual expenditures).

If anyone thinks my numbers are off or unfair in someway, though, I'm always ready to listen.

[Yelnoc]

     Great job! Also, a $200 billion surplus seems a little too good to be true.

Yeah, I have been trying to think of ways around that.  If it's ok with Badger, we can add another item to the revenue category named "Moderator Credit" or some such.  This would consist of enough money for that $200 billion surplus to have been true in April 2010 when it was assigned.  However, each month $10 billion would be automatically deducted until the category was whittled down to zero, where it would likely remain.  In the future it can be used for adjustments and budgets that need to temporarily deviate from reality for whatever reason.

Under that plan, the IDS would be down to $90 billion in moderator credit; $0 would be reached in December 2011.

EDIT: Actually, it will take a tad more that $200 billion to create a $200 billion surplus (duh!).  Instead of subtracting a $10 billion a month, we should subtract 5% of that original number.  If it's ok with you PiT, I will PM Badger about this.

Also, looking at the bills and initiatives that need to be integrated into our budget, I think we will need to add all of the subheadings.   

Hmmmmm. I'll have to think about this. Actually many states do have a rainy day fund. And while $200 billion may seem a lot, spread out over 10 southern states (including TX and FL)? Maybe not that farfetched.

Anyone have an idea (or willing to check) what the southern states RL rainy day fund (or equivalent) status is like?

This website provides a graph showing the percentage of annual expenditures in 2008 that went into a rainy day fund.  Georgia, the state which IDS law is based off of, devoted between 5% and 10% of its annual expenditures to a rainy day fund.  Assuming that 10% of the IDS budget was added as a rainy day fund, that would create a rainy day fund of $32.21 billion.  Probably not enough to offset the deficit but it's something.

Looking at the underlying data for that graph, it appears Georgia's rainy day fund was only at 5.3% of its annual expenditures. Most other IDS states varied from Arkansas (zilch) to Texas (10.2%).

I have studiously determined that the $200 Billion surplus appears, sadly, to have primarily resulted from accounting errors and overestimation of future receipts which were heavily decimated by the recession. There's also mysterious withdrawls to a Cayman Islands account simply listed under "NCYnk".

Even 10% I'm afraid is not realistic when only Texas meets that level in RL. That said, based on TX having a hugely disproportionate share of regional revenues, some other states being in the 5-10% range, plus a bonus for Yelnoc finding this website and doing preliminary calculations (that's always looked upon favorably by the GM's Office ), I'll put the IDS Rainy Day Fund balance at exactly (coincidentally) $25 Bil (or nearly 8% of annual expenditures).

If anyone thinks my numbers are off or unfair in someway, though, I'm always ready to listen.

That's fair.  Darn you NCYnk!!!

Anyway, looking at the balance sheet I put together at the top of the page, I think we will need to add up all of the sub-categories to actually be able to find the budget.  Oye vey.  I've got track tomorrow but I'll see what I can do Sunday.  In the meantime, I'm putting out the call to our other citizens and elected officials.  Pull your weight!

[Associate Justice PiT]

Education:
Base: $73.4 billion
Southeastern Educational Incentive Act: $3.5 billion
School Choice Initiative: $56.4 billion

Total: $133.3 billion

    Just a thought, what does everyone make of Section 1 of the School Choice Initiative?:

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     It seems to me that it should reduce the base, but I'm not sure by how much.

     Also, regional tax rates!

Corporate tax: 8.6%
Personal income tax: effectively 6%
Alcohol sales tax: $1.00/proof liter
Tobacco sales tax: $0.04/cigarette, $0.08/cigar, $2.00/kg tobacco
Liquid fuel tax: $0.08/liter
Marijuana tax: $3.00/ounce
Excise taxes on nuclear & biomass-produced electricity are 80% of the normal excise tax on electricity, whatever that might be.

[Brandon H]

     Also, regional tax rates!

Corporate tax: 8.6%
Personal income tax: effectively 6%
Alcohol sales tax: $1.00/proof liter
Tobacco sales tax: $0.04/cigarette, $0.08/cigar, $2.00/kg tobacco
Liquid fuel tax: $0.08/liter
Marijuana tax: $3.00/ounce
Excise taxes on nuclear & biomass-produced electricity are 80% of the normal excise tax on electricity, whatever that might be.

Does this mean a 50 proof bottle of alcohol would have $50 tax? A little bit excessive.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Also, regional tax rates!

Corporate tax: 8.6%
Personal income tax: effectively 6%
Alcohol sales tax: $1.00/proof liter
Tobacco sales tax: $0.04/cigarette, $0.08/cigar, $2.00/kg tobacco
Liquid fuel tax: $0.08/liter
Marijuana tax: $3.00/ounce
Excise taxes on nuclear & biomass-produced electricity are 80% of the normal excise tax on electricity, whatever that might be.

Does this mean a 50 proof bottle of alcohol would have $50 tax? A little bit excessive.

     I think it means that the tax is $1 per liter of 100-proof alcohol, or per half-liter of pure alcohol.

[Yelnoc]

Education:
Base: $73.4 billion
Southeastern Educational Incentive Act: $3.5 billion
School Choice Initiative: $56.4 billion

Total: $133.3 billion

I realize I probably sound stupid but how did you come up with those numbers?

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     It seems to me that it should reduce the base, but I'm not sure by how much.[/quote]
Aw crap.  Looks like we don't have a base anymore.  They stopped regional education spending and then went and abolished the state Departments of Education.  Meaning that all public schools are funded exclusively at the county level (with, of course, unfunded Federal mandates).  If I'm right, I'll place a bill in the pipeline to rectify the situation.

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i luv u

Updating the balance sheet....

[Associate Justice PiT]

Education:
Base: $73.4 billion
Southeastern Educational Incentive Act: $3.5 billion
School Choice Initiative: $56.4 billion

Total: $133.3 billion

I realize I probably sound stupid but how did you come up with those numbers?

     It's actually a very good question. I used the enrollment figures in the infobox of this link.

     For the SEIA, I divided the post-secondary numbers by 5 to estimate the number of such students in the IDS & multiplied by 1,000 to find the cost of tax credits to that number of students.

     For the SCI, I divided the primary school figures by 5 & then multiplied them by 4,000 for the value of the tax credits. I then divided the secondary school figures by 5 & multiplied them by 5,000; that is the middle bracket for vouchers & the Wikipedia article on median incomes by state suggested that the median income for the region probably falls in that bracket, so it seemed like a reasonable estimate. I then added those two together.

Just a thought, what does everyone make of Section 1 of the School Choice Initiative?:

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     It seems to me that it should reduce the base, but I'm not sure by how much.

Aw crap.  Looks like we don't have a base anymore.  They stopped regional education spending and then went and abolished the state Departments of Education.  Meaning that all public schools are funded exclusively at the county level (with, of course, unfunded Federal mandates).  If I'm right, I'll place a bill in the pipeline to rectify the situation.

     I don't think that it should completely eliminate the base, since there is a certain amount of education funding that doesn't go directly to schools. If nothing else, we would still be paying for salaries for regional-level education administration, as pointless as that would be in the absence of regional-level education expenditures. I'd like legal expertise on this matter before taking any action on it though, as I don't know too much about education expenditures.

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i luv u

Updating the balance sheet....

     If we can find the average rate in the region for each of those items (except marijuana, of course), we can compare them to our regional rates & adjust the tax revenue accordingly. That should produce a pretty good estimate of our total tax revenue.

[Yelnoc]

Just a thought, what does everyone make of Section 1 of the School Choice Initiative?:

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     It seems to me that it should reduce the base, but I'm not sure by how much.

Aw crap.  Looks like we don't have a base anymore.  They stopped regional education spending and then went and abolished the state Departments of Education.  Meaning that all public schools are funded exclusively at the county level (with, of course, unfunded Federal mandates).  If I'm right, I'll place a bill in the pipeline to rectify the situation.

     I don't think that it should completely eliminate the base, since there is a certain amount of education funding that doesn't go directly to schools. If nothing else, we would still be paying for salaries for regional-level education administration, as pointless as that would be in the absence of regional-level education expenditures. I'd like legal expertise on this matter before taking any action on it though, as I don't know too much about education expenditures.

You're right, it only cuts off funding to "schools" (presumably all levels of education).  All education programs not directly related to schools in addition to administration expenses would remain.  I guess we will have to figure out which sub-category of the education sector covers those sections and add it up across our states for the region total.  Or, to save us the trouble (and vastly improve our education system), we could pass a bill fixing the situation.

Current and future legislators, listen up!  Always make sure every word in a bill says exactly what you want it to say!

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i luv u

Updating the balance sheet....
[/quote]

     If we can find the average rate in the region for each of those items (except marijuana, of course), we can compare them to our regional rates & adjust the tax revenue accordingly. That should produce a pretty good estimate of our total tax revenue.
[/quote]
I'll get on it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Just a thought, what does everyone make of Section 1 of the School Choice Initiative?:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

     It seems to me that it should reduce the base, but I'm not sure by how much.

Aw crap.  Looks like we don't have a base anymore.  They stopped regional education spending and then went and abolished the state Departments of Education.  Meaning that all public schools are funded exclusively at the county level (with, of course, unfunded Federal mandates).  If I'm right, I'll place a bill in the pipeline to rectify the situation.

     I don't think that it should completely eliminate the base, since there is a certain amount of education funding that doesn't go directly to schools. If nothing else, we would still be paying for salaries for regional-level education administration, as pointless as that would be in the absence of regional-level education expenditures. I'd like legal expertise on this matter before taking any action on it though, as I don't know too much about education expenditures.

You're right, it only cuts off funding to "schools" (presumably all levels of education).  All education programs not directly related to schools in addition to administration expenses would remain.  I guess we will have to figure out which sub-category of the education sector covers those sections and add it up across our states for the region total.  Or, to save us the trouble (and vastly improve our education system), we could pass a bill fixing the situation.

Current and future legislators, listen up!  Always make sure every word in a bill says exactly what you want it to say!

     Indeed, that's why I always offer amendments to bills to make them more specific. I think there's a very real possibility to be considered that the School Choice Initiative has effectively eliminated state universities in the region.

[Yelnoc]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code.  

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code. 

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

     The assumption I've been making was that State Departments have been partially subsumed into Regional Departments, so we have the same amount of bureaucracy, but split between two levels of authority.

     After this is done, I think we should pass an omnibus tax bill, setting specific rates for each item in an easy-to-find location.

[Yelnoc]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code. 

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

     The assumption I've been making was that State Departments have been partially subsumed into Regional Departments, so we have the same amount of bureaucracy, but split between two levels of authority.

     After this is done, I think we should pass an omnibus tax bill, setting specific rates for each item in an easy-to-find location.

I'm beginning to think that we should do that before we try to calculate everything.  Otherwise, we are going to have to go back and do this all over again.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code. 

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

     The assumption I've been making was that State Departments have been partially subsumed into Regional Departments, so we have the same amount of bureaucracy, but split between two levels of authority.

     After this is done, I think we should pass an omnibus tax bill, setting specific rates for each item in an easy-to-find location.

I'm beginning to think that we should do that before we try to calculate everything.  Otherwise, we are going to have to go back and do this all over again.

     We do have to calculate the rates first, & I do think the rates I provided will assist in calculating the bulk of the regional revenue. However, I think we should also, once we've determined the exact relations between taxes & revenue, adjust the rates to balance the budget while placing a minimal tax burden on the citizens.

     For the purpose of making these adjustments, I think we can ignore the Laffer curve & assume a linear relation between tax rate & revenue. Obviously that wouldn't hold for determining federal taxes vs. revenue, but I think the regional taxes are low enough that the effects of tax avoidance are essentially null.

[Badger]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code.  

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

One little bit of help: If you can provide the GM's Office a list of IDS RL income tax rates (or at least links directly to the states' rates), I can calculate the RL "average" income tax for the region.

Whatever tax rates you guys decide is totally up to you, of course. The point for the RL "regional" income tax rate is that whatever it turns out to be produced approximately $35.6 Billion in revenue (as Yelnoc calculated here). So a determination of however much revenue is produced by whatever tax level you ultimately legislate will be made based on the RL regional average producing $35.6 Bil.

For example, Yelnoc's proposal is for a 6% income tax rate (presumably a flat rate as it reads? Yes, it wouldn't be the IDS if people didn't think progressive tax rates were icky ). If the RL average income tax rate for IDS states is determined to be (e.g.) 3%, then passing a 6% rate would produce roughly twice the revenue as RL: $35.6 Bil x2 = $71.2 Bil.

[Yelnoc]

I'll keep this page updated with my endeavors in calculating those regional tax rates.

My initial thoughts are that tax rates are going to be difficult to come by using that US Government Revenue site; it gives each states revenue from these sources but not the actual rates (see the top of page 6).  We do have two states in the IDS, Florida and Texas, which institute no income tax.  To further complicate matters, Texas does not have a normal corporate tax, opting instead for a gross margins business tax.  We really should standardize the IDS tax code.  

That thought leads down an interesting road.  We are assuming that the states are collecting taxes and sending all of the revenue to us.  Does this mean that all State Departments are unfunded?  Meaning, in turn, that any services not explicitly legislated by the Southeast Region are not in place?  I can't believe that in five years no one has thought to look at the logistics of the region!

One little bit of help: If you can provide the GM's Office a list of IDS RL income tax rates (or at least links directly to the states' rates), I can calculate the RL "average" income tax for the region.

Whatever tax rates you guys decide is totally up to you, of course. The point for the RL "regional" income tax rate is that whatever it turns out to be produced approximately $35.6 Billion in revenue (as Yelnoc calculated here). So a determination of however much revenue is produced by whatever tax level you ultimately legislate will be made based on the RL regional average producing $35.6 Bil.

For example, Yelnoc's proposal is for a 6% income tax rate (presumably a flat rate as it reads? Yes, it wouldn't be the IDS if people didn't think progressive tax rates were icky ). If the RL average income tax rate for IDS states is determined to be (e.g.) 3%, then passing a 6% rate would produce roughly twice the revenue as RL: $35.6 Bil x2 = $71.2 Bil.

Thanks, I will do that.  And the 6% was PiT's number, presumably from some bygone piece of legislation.

@PiT: Gotcha