Pacific Legislature Official Thread

[The Duke]

Here's where we vote on things.

[The Duke]

Debate is hereby opened on these four pieces of legislation.

Third Trimester Abortion Ban Act
Sponsor- Lt. Governor Hobbes

1. All abortions in the third trimester, except for cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, are hereby outlawed in the Pacific Region.

2. Any person who performs an illegal third trimester abortion will be sentenced to at least five years in prison.

3. Any mother seeking an illegal third trimester abortion shall be fined at least $50,000.

Protection of Commerce in Arms Bill
Sponsor- Vice President Emsworth

1. The manufacturer or seller of firearms or low-potency explosives shall not be held liable for death, physical injury, or property damage resulting from the use of said firearms or low-potency explosives.

2. Clause 1 of this section shall not apply where:

(a) Death, physical injury, or property damage is the direct result of a defect in the design or manufacture of the product;
(b) The seller negligently supplies the product to a person whom he knows, or reasonably should know, is likely to use said product in an unlawful manner involving unreasonable risk to others;
(c) The manufacturer or seller is an accessory to, or is otherwise unlawfully involved in, the relevant crime.

Affirmative Action Bill
Sponsor- Vice President Emsworth

1. For the purposes of this act, "affirmative action" is defined as granting special preference or other advantage in employment to individuals on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or economic status.

2. No agency of the government of the Pacific Region may use affirmative action in any decision relating to the selection, payment, treatment, or dismissal of any employee.

3. No public university of the Pacific Region may use affirmative action in any decision relating to the admission, treatment, or removal of any student.

Anti-Drug Testing Act
Sponsor- Vice President Emsworth

1. No public school may compel a student to submit to a drug test without probable cause.

2. No public school may make suspicionless or random drug testing a requirement for participation in any school activity.

[The Duke]

Voting is open on two amendments.  The first will add protecting the health of the mother to the reasons for exemption from the abortion restriction law, the second will strike Section 3 from the abortion law.  Both amendments offerred by Emsworth.

Please vote now on each item independently.

[The Duke]

At just after 7pm, voting on the amendments will close and it will open on the other subsequently proposed amendments.

[The Duke]

Voting closed.  New text of the abortion bill.

Third Trimester Abortion Ban Act
Sponsor- Lt. Governor Hobbes

1. All abortions in the third trimester, except for cases of rape, incest, saving the life of the woman, and protecting the health of the woman, are hereby outlawed in the Pacific Region.

2. Any person who performs an illegal third trimester abortion will be sentenced to at least five years in prison.

We are now voting on:

1. Hugh's suggested amendment bringing the penalty for doctors down to 18 months in prison.

2. Emsworth's suggested amendment removing the incest exemption.

3. Alcon's and WMS's suggested amendment specifying the physical health of the mother be the only exemption under health, and not some loosely defined mental trauma. (I hope this wording fits their intent, if they object to this interpretation I'll shut down voting on this amendment).

[The Duke]

We are now voting on:

3. Alcon's and WMS's suggested amendment specifying the physical health of the mother be the only exemption under health, and not some loosely defined mental trauma. (I hope this wording fits their intent, if they object to this interpretation I'll shut down voting on this amendment).

You would have to ask Alcon on that. Can I vote on the first two measures now and wait until Alcon clarifies matters to vote on the third measure?

Yes

[The Duke]

Third Trimester Abortion Ban Act
Sponsor- Lt. Governor Hobbes

1. All abortions in the third trimester, except for cases of rape, saving the life of the woman, and protecting the health of the woman, are hereby outlawed in the Pacific Region.

2. Any person who performs an illegal third trimester abortion will be sentenced to at least eighteen months in prison.



Are there any other suggested Amendments?

[The Duke]

I accidentally copied the un-Amended bill.   John sad now.

Fixed it.

[The Duke]

Since there are no more Amendments, I hereby open voting on the full bill.

[The Duke]

Voting on the Third Trimester Abortion Ban Act has closed.  The final vote is 4 Yes, 0 No, and 1 Abstention.

This Act has passed.

The Governor will now sign the bill into law.

xGovernor John Ford

[The Duke]

I will now open voting on our second piece of legislation, a minimum wage law.  As you know, our nation's minimum wage was struck down by the Supreme Court, and as a result teenagers everywhere cannot afford the latest Gwen Stefani CD.

In my campaign, I pledged to establish a minimum wage and I now hope to fulfill that promise.  I introduce the following bill:

Minimum Wage Act

1. The minimum hourly wage shall be set at $7.00 per hour

I hereby open debate.

[The Duke]

I propose the following amendment:

2. The minimum wage shall be indexed to inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Any change in the minimum wage shall take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year.

Do I correctly understand the amendment means that the new wage will take effect Jan. 1 of 2006 at $7 and then in Jan. 1 of 2007 would be adjusted for inflation?

[The Duke]

With no further debate occurring, I will introduce for a vote this version of the bill unless there is objection:

Minimum Wage Act

1. The minimum hourly wage shall be set at $7.00 per hour

2. This wage shall increase annually commensurate with the rate of inlfation as measured by the CPI

      a. Adjustments based on inflation shall take place at the start of each fiscal year.

3. This minimum wage wage shall take effect On January 1, 2006

I know this isn't with the exact amendments proposed, and if anyone really objects they can, I'm just rying to get this voted on, the abortion bill seemed to be on the floor for 3 weeks.

[The Duke]

By a vote of 5-3, this act has passed.

I open voting starting now on the Protection of Commerce in Arms Bill and the Affirmative Action Abolition Bill.

[The Duke]

For the Protection of Commerce in Arms Bill, what does the phrase mean, "The seller negligently supplies the product to a person whom he knows, or reasonably should know, is likely to use said product in an unlawful manner involving unreasonable risk to others?" I'm wondering how would it be interperated.

You'll  be the one interpeting it, of course.  You're our chief judicial officer.

Have you taken the oath yet, btw?

[The Duke]

For the Protection of Commerce in Arms Bill, what does the phrase mean, "The seller negligently supplies the product to a person whom he knows, or reasonably should know, is likely to use said product in an unlawful manner involving unreasonable risk to others?" I'm wondering how would it be interperated.

You'll  be the one interpeting it, of course.  You're our chief judicial officer.

Have you taken the oath yet, btw?

Really? Cool!!

Nope, no oath yet.

Lt. Governor is Chief Judicial Officer, so yeah.  Head on over to the government board and find the "Swearing in of New Office Holders" thread and take the oath.

[The Duke]

The Protection of Commerce in Arms Bill has passed by a vote of 4-2.

I sign it.

xJohn Ford

The Affirmative Action Abolition Bill has passed by a vote of 4-1 with 1 abstention.

I sign it.

xJohn Ford

[The Duke]

Time for spending cuts!  With the election over, the distractions are gone and its time to buckle down.

Administrator Reduction Act

1. The Pacific Legislature empowers the Governor and the heads of the Regional Agencies to reduce the number of administrative position in the Pacific Government by 5%.

2. Estimated savings will be $800 million.

Salary Reduction Act

1. All salaries of Regional government employees shall be reduced by 5%.

2. Teachers shall be exempted from this act.

3. Law enforcement officers shall be exempted from this act.

4. Estimated savings will be $1.5 billion.

Consolidation Act

1. Whereas the operations of the Regional government are currently dispersed, and whereas it is beneficial to have them centralized;

2. The Agencies of the Regional Government shall have their headquarters relocated and consolidated into city of Sacramento.

3. Existing facilities shall be used where possible, and new facilities constructed when necessary.

4. This legislation will save an estimated $3.1 billion.

Total savings will be $5.4 billion.

And I wish to Amend our tax code:

Gambling Revenue Amendment to Tax Code

1. All casinos within the Pacific Region shall pay a 20% tax on their revenues

2. This tax is comparable to the level of tax that state government's placed on casinos prior to the unification of the tax code

3. Estimated Revenues are $3 billion


I open debate on all four bills.

[The Duke]

ad. red: how many jobs, approx., will be cut by this? 5% might seem smalll, but with regional government being a huge employer in the Pacific, that'll affect a lot of lives. How many?

sal. red. add a lower limit. IE, all regional governmental employees earning over, say,. $30,000 a year (adjusted for inflation) shall have...blah blah blah, although less then 5% for those earning less then $31,500 etc.

consolidation act-No, thanks. Rather, consodlidate each department in a different place. IE, have education in seattle, taxes and rev enue in nevada, health in portland, etc etc.

Otherwise, thousands of people who couldn't afford or don't want to live in San Francisco would lose their jobs, which is far worse then the loss of a potential 5 billion, which would of course be nice. But money will still be made through consolidation. As is, there is no way I can support this bill (it's not an act until it passes, btw).

gambling revenue...I think this is OK, but there are some things that must be considered: 1. Las Vegas. How would this affect tourism? 2. Will the government become 'addicted' to gambling revenue, as has happened in other countries?

1, I don't really know. 2, it's likely; very few governments try and stop gambling addiction if they need the revenue to keep the budget in the black. So, to limit the harm of this, I suggest we ban all gambling that relies on chance rather then skill (or a combination of the two). IE, sports betting, most card games etc. would be legal, but things like the pokies illegal.

As for the consolidation bill, I think its frankly an awful idea to have each of the departments in a different city.  There's no government in this country that does such a thing, and there's a reason.

I would be open to moving the Departments to Sacramento instead of San Fran, and that might actually turn out to be cheaper because they already have a lot of government buildings and its not wildly far from the Capital.

I don't expect the gambling tax to affect tourism because its nearly identical to the state tax on casinos already in place IRL.  If the IRL tax doesn't affect tourism, why would this tax?

As for salary reduction, I had no choice but to do it across the board because the data the GM and I had was sufficiently limited that there's no way to go through and find what the savings would be for a graduated salary reduction like that.

I'll have to ask the GM how many jobs would be cut by the administrative reduction program.

[The Duke]

Sacramento I could live with. San Francisco is too expensive and is way too vulnerable to natural disasters.

Sounds like a consensus is forming behind Sacramento as the seat of the bureacracy.  That's more than fine with me, I had only selected San Fran because it is the capital (Don't blame me, I voted for San Diego).

[The Duke]

Excellent, Consolidation Act is amended as follows:

1. San Francisco shall be replaced by Sacramento as the seat of bureacracy

3. Savings estimate shall be changed to $3.1 billion

[The Duke]

Should I understand the lack of debate as a quiet agreement with the proposed legislation?

Any objections should be made here so the legislation can be amended.

[The Duke]

Sacramento is a terrible choice for capital.

Its not the capital, San Francisco is the capital.  We chose to put the bureacracy in Sacramento because its reasonably close to the capital and it already has the infrastructure to support the administration of government.

[The Duke]

I'm going to open debate on all these bills, having amended them when reasonable as per the requests of citizens:

Administrator Reduction Act

1. The Pacific Legislature empowers the Governor and the heads of the Regional Agencies to reduce the number of administrative position in the Pacific Government by 5%.

2. Estimated savings will be $800 million.

Salary Reduction Act

1. All salaries of Regional government employees shall be reduced by 5%.

2. Teachers shall be exempted from this act.

3. Law enforcement officers shall be exempted from this act.

4. Estimated savings will be $1.5 billion.

Consolidation Act

1. Whereas the operations of the Regional government are currently dispersed, and whereas it is beneficial to have them centralized;

2. The Agencies of the Regional Government shall have their headquarters relocated and consolidated into city of Sacramento.

3. Existing facilities shall be used where possible, and new facilities constructed when necessary.

4. This legislation will save an estimated $3.1 billion.

Gambling Revenue Amendment to Tax Code

1. All casinos within the Pacific Region shall pay a 20% tax on their revenues.

2. This tax is comparable to the level of tax that state government's placed on casinos prior to the unification of the tax code.

3. Gambling shall not be extended to or legalized in any jurisdiction where it is not legalized at the time of this bill's passage.

3. Estimated Revenues are $3 billion.

Please vote yes!

[The Duke]

Sam's numbers are on the way, btw.  Just waiting, because he's been quite busy with the things that matter.