FT 13-01: Commonwealth Budget for FY2020 (Debating)

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

COMMONWEALTH BUDGET
for the Fiscal Year of 2020

REVENUE

Income Tax (by tax bracket)

$0K - $75K (-2%): $-14,782,096,677

$75 - $125K (0%): $-9,929,637,057

$125 - $200K (2%): $-1,817,828,865

$200K - $1M (5%): $17,164,944,312

$1M - $10M (10%): $15,153,263,189

$10M - $100M (15%): $10,080,744,669

$100M+ (20%): $3,239,003,811

Income Tax Revenues: $19,108,393,381

Excise Taxes

Alcohol (15%): $13,087,791,871

Gas & Diesel ($0.30/gallon): $14,653,207,484

Tobacco (15%): $2,716,310,234

Excise Tax Revenues: $30,457,309,589


Other Taxes and Penalties

Fremont Carbon Taxation Act: $31,011,738,620

Green Vehicle Promotion Act § 2.ii: $3,602,574,479

Royalties Act:
Coal: $2,877,687,513
Gas: $1,500,722,750
Oil: $11,355,570,000

Gaming Tax: $5,100,495,700

Estate Tax: $2,337,153,746

Drug Tax: $3,446,083,796

Lodging Facility Sales and Use Tax: $5,091,240,579.71

Other Revenues: $61,232,026,604

FY2019 Surplus

To Be Determined

EXPENDITURES

Tax Credits

Green Vehicle Promotion Act §2.i: $1,236,935,443

Teacher's Tax Credit: $423,539,000

Mandatory Spending

Medicaid Expansion Act: $0

PAACCA: $600,000,000

Transparency in Law Enforcement Act: $405,000,000

Fremont Railway and Pan-Regional Transport Act: $4,618,000,000

Central and Northern Pacific Railway Act of 2017: $10,424,400,000

Private Prison Depopulation Act of 2017: $500,000,000

Earthquake Act: $50,000,000

Rural High-Speed Internet Improvement Ac: $1,000,000,000

LFTR Act: $5,000,000,000

Innovation Prosperity Act: $50,000,000

The Fremont Parks and Recreation Act of 2018: $750,000,000

Bank of Fremont Act: $1,540,457

Fremont Promise Act: $3,350,000,000

Fremont Urban Renovation Act of 2018: $250,000,000

Green Act: $20,000,000,000

Regional Heritage Act: $300,000,000

AtlasCare: $0

Warren Act: $618,750,000

Mann Act: $150,000,000,000

Drug Education and Research: $55,000,000

Climate Change Act: $1,000,000

Fremont Infrastructure Enhancement Act: $3,000,000

FremontConnect Extension Act: $10,000,000,000

California Natural Disasters Act: $6,000,000

Better Interchanges for Fremont Act: $500,000,000

National Guard Funding Act: $2,000,000,000

Fremont Rural Hospitals Act of 2019: $200,000,000

Korean Wars Memorial Act: $5,500,000

Pacific Railway Reauthorization Act: $10,298,400,000

Nebraska and Iowa Flood Relief Act: $250,000,000

Fremont Healthy Lungs Act: $1,500,000

Fremont Farm Bill of 2019: $5,000,000

Fremont Parks and Recreation Act of 2019: $20,000,000

Frémont Missing Persons and Tribal Nations Act: $1,500,000

Alaska Permanent Fund Bailout Act: $444,000,000

Total mandatory spending: To Be Determined


Discretionary Spending

Total discretionary spending: To Be Determined

TOTAL REVENUES: To Be Determined

TOTAL EXPENDITURES: To Be Determined

TOTAL SURPLUS: To Be Determined

Sponsor: Scott, FM

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So this is a budget blueprint which includes all expenditures and changes to our regional tax code made since the passage of last year's budget.  For reference, this is the budget that YE signed in 2019.

Our biggest challenge now is absorbing most state and local services, which is going to cut into our budget surplus substantially and will likely plunge us into a deficit.  Budget Minister shua and myself have been researching tax revenue/expenditure figures for each state, but this is a tedious effort as not all states report these figures in a way that is easily accessible, and I'm not sure if all states have reported their figures from 2018, which is important in determining how much we might need to raise taxes in order to cover services provided by the states.

Ultimately our goal is, of course, to end "triple taxation" so that people aren't paying for state, federal, and regional taxes.  Centralizing local services will reduce the burden on taxpayers who are currently footing the bill for all government expenses.

We started discussing this problem last April but have since been kicking the can down the road, so my priority for this session is to finish regionalization and get next year's budget passed before November.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I thank the first minister for bringing this to the floor.

As I recall, there was discussion in the spring of using Montana as a model for education funding. Do we have an idea of what that would look like on a regional scale?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I thank the first minister for bringing this to the floor.

As I recall, there was discussion in the spring of using Montana as a model for education funding. Do we have an idea of what that would look like on a regional scale?

Here is a very brief summary of Montana's education funding model, via Google:

About $715 million of the state general fund is used for school funding purposes annually. The Teachers' Retirement system benefits school teachers in Montana, who pay 8.15% of their salaries into the system. School district employers contribute 8.47%, and the state pays .238% plus $25 million.

https://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2015-2016/School-Funding/Meetings/UnderstandSchoolFinance.pdf

So what we should probably do is calculate Montana's education spending as a percentage of its overall budget and use that to determine the size of our education budget.  Then we replicate Montana's pension program.

I also made mention of Wyoming's model for schools in the committee thread, which I favor implementing regionally.  Wyoming recaptures money from wealthy school districts and redistributes it to lower-income districts so that all students have access to the same quality education whether they live in rich, poor, urban, or rural communities.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So here's my thinking:

Based on my understanding of Montana's FY 2018 Budget Report on page 19, the total cost for funding state agencies was $1,937,087,701.  Of this figure, $1,014,308,285 was requested to fund the Education Department, which is 52.36% of the total budget.

This includes the Office of Public Instruction, the Board of Public Education, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, the School for the Deaf and Blind, the Montana Arts Council, the Montana State Library, and the Montana Historical Society.

If we were to implement Montana's funding model without making any changes, 52.36% of our budget expenditures would go towards education.  Obviously we don't have a regional version of the School for the Deaf and the Blind, so that would be subtracted from the total.  Same with the Montana Arts Council, the Montana State Library, and the Montana Historical Society: these would be subtracted from our base figure.  But we still need to find a mechanism to fund state versions of those institutes, otherwise existing ones would shut down.

I'm not sure what the solution would be for that.  Perhaps a grant program?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I thank the first minister; though I wonder if it would not be best to calculate funding for education as a per capita dollar amount, as opposed to a percentage? That is unless we already have an idea of the total sum required to fund all social programs. I also agree with the proposal to allocate funds to school districts on the Wyoming model.

I think a grant program would do well to fund institutions like our state libraries (and would have the added benefit of preserving local control of these funds).

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Since education is likely to be our single largest budget expenditure, I have proposed separate legislation for reorganizing our education system, so matters regarding education should be discussed there for now.

Here is a simple list of state expenditures and revenues:

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

Total Tax Revenue: $15,078,552,000
Total Expenditures: $313,023,000,000
Total Deficit: $297,944,448,000

If my methodology is sound, we will automatically be footing the bill for $297,944,448,000.  Our surplus as of last year was $181,997,845,008 and we've already spent a chunk of that, so we're definitely looking at a deficit in this next budget.  And that of course is before we crunch the numbers for education spending.

We ought to talk about spending cuts/tax increases at some point, but for now we need to determine just how deep in the hole we're going to be once regionalization is carried out.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Okay —I think at one point we had this broken down by category (education, emergency services, etc). Do we have those figures? I'm willing to help to the extent that I'm able, but I don't want to put in hours of work if someone else has already done a better job.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Okay —I think at one point we had this broken down by category (education, emergency services, etc). Do we have those figures? I'm willing to help to the extent that I'm able, but I don't want to put in hours of work if someone else has already done a better job.

I don't recall that ever being discussed but Budget Minister shua did create a spreadsheet for state budgets that we can add to.  A budget this detailed is going to be a lot of work, so it would probably be a good idea to divide the workload by assigning each MP a list of states to research.  If possible, we should set a time for everyone to meet on FremontCord and talk about which categories we're looking for and divide the list of states.

Also, if anyone knows of a directory for 2017 state budgets, that would make this process a lot easier.  Otherwise we'll just have to dig around for each of them.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So as I informed our MPs last night, a meeting over the budget had been planned but I was too sick to attend plus my mom needed my computer to fix some technical stuff.

I should be free for most of this week, so everyone post some times that we could all meet.  If we can't agree on a good meeting time, we'll just assign state budgets for everyone to research.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Alternatively, we could just dib the states we want to research.  With eighteen constituent states, three of us can research four states and two can research three states.  For example, I would choose:

Wyoming
Montana
Nevada
Colorado

Research the 2017 budgets and report on how much the states spend on each department (general government, public health and human services, natural resources, transportation, judicial branch and law enforcement, education, etc.)

Remember that education dollars will be pooled and redistributed to schools that need the most funding, putting us in line with Wyoming's model.

Any questions, comments, concerns?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'll take the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Iowa.

It might be advisable to look into Guam, AS, and NMI as well as Congress is likely to grant these statehood shortly.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Bump. Currently, ten states and the external territories of Guam, AS, and NMI remain unclaimed. If the members would rather we worked through all 18 budgets as a group, that's fine too, but please say so —otherwise I will assume you are hard at work researching and will expect timely results!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

North Dakota 2019 (Source)
$00,768,543,452     General Government
$05,628,456,101     Education
$04,427,658,576     Health & Human Services
$00,422,623,374     Regulatory
$00,481,184,307     Public Safety
$00,375,303,749     Agriculture & Economic Development
$01,122,082,774     Natural Resources
$01,464,745,404     Transportation
$14,690,597,737     TOTAL

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Wyoming 2017 (Source)
$2,294,450,108           Education (K-12)
$913,075,755              Education (UW and Colleges)
$2,086,585,019           Health
$525,262,805              Justice, Public Safety, and Corrections
$270,781,907              Family Services
$412,784,504              Employment, Economic Development, and Commerce
$424,785,568              Natural Resources
$392,057,033              Transportation
$1,651,345,374           General Government
$3,207,525,863             TOTAL


Ten states and three territories still unclaimed...

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

South Dakota 2019 (Source)
$0,211,509,231     Executive Management
$0,075,281,830     Department of Revenue
$0,050,660,218     Agriculture
$0,017,569,839     Tourism
$0,093,605,753     Game, Fish, and Parks
$0,000,552,675     Tribal Relations
$1,010,004,913     Social Services
$0,099,540,253     Health
$0,045,229,775     Labor and Regulation
$0,788,503,355     Education
$0,068,647,320     Public Safety
$0,794,063,735     Board of Regents (Public Universities)
$0,025,622,361     Military
$0,012,159,804     Veteran's Affairs
$0,112,395,991     Corrections
$0,409,721,399     Human Services
$0,024,807,503     Environment and Natural Resources
$0,004,570,632     Retirement System
$0,004,810,010     Public Utilities
$0,056,000,951     Unified Judicial System
$0,011,350,591     Legislature
$0,026,525,537     Attorney General
$0,000,888,505     Public Lands
$0,003,042,617     Secretary of State
$0,049,655,034     Treasurer
$0,001,301,883     Auditor
$3,998,021,715     TOTAL

[YE]

Wait Scott you actually thought more than like 2 people would get off their ass and research states?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Wait Scott you actually thought more than like 2 people would get off their ass and research states?

Foolishly, yes.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Montana 2019 (Source)
$31,376,004      General Government
$4,045,236,097  Public Health and Human Services
$184,058,547     Natural Resources and Transportation
$4,905,294         Judicial Branch, Law Enforcement and Justice
$1,995,254,970  Education
$6,260,830,912  TOTAL

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Assuming sponsorship of this, barring any objections.

Also, a friendly reminder that some people need to start pulling their weight around here.

[YE]

Scott can still sponsor as long as he's a legal resident in Fremont FYI unless standing orders changed since I was last active in the region.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Scott can still sponsor as long as he's a legal resident in Fremont FYI unless standing orders changed since I was last active in the region.

Indeed, though as he resigned to focus on real-life matters, I wasn't sure if he would still be available.

In any event, the motion is accepted for want of objection.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Minnesota 2020–21 (Source)
$19,735,723     Education (K-12)
$03,276,171     Higher education
$03,654,669     Property tax credits
$15,575,422     Health & human services
$02,377,231     Public safety & judiciary
$00,247,563     Transportation
$00,324,443     Environment
$00,122,422     Agriculture
$00,410,929     Economic development, housing, & commerce
$01,141,122     State government & veterans
$01,255,203     Debt service
$00,276,944     Capital projects & grants
$48,377,842     TOTAL

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Bumping this for the new session.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Passing this budget needs to be our biggest immediate priority. Starting debate on this now.

There's nothing to debate until all state expenditures have been calculated and tallied.