Fremont Committee on Regionalization and the Budget

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Fremont Committee on Regionalization and the Budget

In addition to FremontCord, this thread will be used for discussion pertaining to regionalization of public services and the budget, which shall reflect the cost of regional absorption of state services.

Education would be a good starting point for us.  We can continue to allow the states to set their own curricula in accordance with federal standards, but school funding is the biggest elephant in the room.

It was decided in April that Montana would be the ideal model to base our education funding on, as Montana is the median state in the nation for income inequality (and is most representative of Fremont for a single state) and ranks highly in K-12 education.  This chart shows where a Montana district's funding comes from, which is the minimum budget legally required by the state.  All school districts are run by boards of trustees.

I am also a fan of Wyoming's funding system (which is rather socialistic for such a conservative state!).  How it works is simple: Wyoming spends between $15,000 to $18,000 per student per year in K-12 education, and money is recaptured from wealthy districts and redistributed to lower-income districts.  In this way, all students have access to a quality education regardless of their zip code or size of their community.

I think that once education funding is settled, piecing the budget together should be fairly simple by looking through state budgets and US government revenue/spending sites.  Encke has a lot on his plate right now but I anticipate that he will help us when we're ready for the GM Department's input.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

We also have to prepare for Los Angeles hosting the Olympics in 2028.  As I said on FremontCord, hosting the Olympic games is costly and most of the money spent is not recouped, so our budget will be taking a hit from this.  I'm not particularly happy about the fact that Los Angeles is hosting it, but it's too late to back out now.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Just from a brief review, I'm very fond of the Wyoming model for student-based education funding as well.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Here is a list of state expenditures and revenues.  This is what the Commonwealth will absorb from SFY2017.

Alaska
Total Tax [in thousands]: $1,189,786
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $9,744

Arizona
Total Tax [in thousands]: $13,888,611
Total Expenditures (in millions): $42,026

California
Total Tax [in thousands]: $155,632,088
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $261,217

Colorado
Total Tax [in thousands]: $13,197,606
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $36,530

Hawaii
Total Tax [in thousands]: $7,029,026
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $14,666

Idaho
Total Tax [in thousands]: $4,511,208
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $7,471

Iowa
Total Tax [in thousands]: $9,755,430
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $22,687

Minnesota
Total Tax [in thousands]: $25,594,522
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $37,468

Montana
Total Tax [in thousands]: $2,654,444
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $6,957

Nebraska
Total Tax [in thousands]: $5,103,105
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $11,867

Nevada
Total Tax [in thousands]: $8,624,618
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $13,914

New Mexico
Total Tax [in thousands]: $5,776,271
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $19,586

North Dakota
Total Tax (in thousands]: $3,465,326
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $6,792

Oregon
Total Tax [in thousands]: $11,914,567
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $40,041

South Dakota
Total Tax [in thousands]: $1,828,543
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $4,227

Utah
Total Tax [in thousands]: $7,832,889
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $14,223

Washington
Total Tax [in thousands]: $23,997,592
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $44,684

Wyoming
Total Tax [in thousands]: $1,649,550
Total Expenditures [in millions]: $4,426

Sources:
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/total-state-spending/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/state-collections/?currentTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=total&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Deputy GM Encke has asked that we use this source for researching revenue and expenditure figures for each state.  Speaker YE will be assisting me with the budget outline before he takes office as one of our new Representatives.

With regard to education funding, I will assume that we are going by the Wyoming model unless anybody objects.

[YE]

X YE

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Alright.  Let's talk bidness.

So I've spoken with our new Budget Minister, shua, and we are using Montana as the model for the budget, starting with taxes.  This is a brief guide to Montana's tax code.  Two things I really like about Montana's code:

1. There is no state sales tax.
2. There is a "bed tax" of 4% on overnight lodging that supports the state’s tourism promotion efforts and also contributes funds to state parks, historic sites, and other programs.  Considering how many places in Fremont are tourism hot spots, it would behoove us to adopt this, especially since we just eliminated tolls.

As for the income tax, Montana and Fremont both have seven income tax brackets.  But unlike Fremont, Montana does not have a negative income tax to help the very poor.  My proposal changes this:

-2% on the first $2,800 of taxable income.
0% on taxable income between $2,801 and $5,000.
1% on taxable income between $5,001 and $7,600.
2% on taxable income between $7,601 and $10,300.
3% on taxable income between $10,301 and $13,300.
4% on taxable income between $13,301 and $17,100.
4.9% on taxable income of $17,101 and above.

I will emphasize here that this is all in the drafting stage at this point.

For reference, here is Fremont's 2019 budget.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Quick analysis of FT 12-10 as requested by Scott. 5.091 billion in revenue for FY2020.