We are working on a brand new version of the game! If you want to stay informed, read our blog and register for our mailing list.
Bill: Budget proposal of December 2459
Details
Submitted by[?]: Democratic Rationalists (PrCoa)
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This bill proposes to change the allocation of funds in the budget. It requires more than half of the legislature to vote yes. This bill will pass as soon as the required yes votes are in, or will be defeated if unsufficient votes are reached on the deadline.
Voting deadline: September 2460
Description[?]:
| This budget restores much of the funding slashed in the last budget vote. Here's my reasoning on each spending proposal. 1) 100 million ALOs is a sufficient but not excessive budget for the Head of Government. With this money is paid for the Prime Minister's salary, his staff's salaries, their equipment, their job-related travel expenses, the Prime Minister's housing, and his housing's staff salaries and equipment. 2) The budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was *irresponsibly* inadequate. Frankly, it's not clear that the new budget for foreign affairs is adequate either. With this budget is paid for the Minister's salary, his staff's salaries, *every Alorian embassy worldwide, and their staff salaries, equipment, and travel expenses.* Additionally, much of Aloria's intelligence gathering falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1.25 billion ALOs is good for now. But Senators should consider raising it more in the future. 3) The Ministry of Internal Affairs mainly conducts ethics and efficiency audits for the rest of government. Its services are important, even vital. But their main expenses are staff salaries, and some travel expenses. 100 million ALOs are adequate, but not excessive. |
Proposals
Article 1
| Ministry | Current Budget | Old Budget | Propesed Budget |
| Head of Government | 40,000,000 ALO | 20,000,000 ALO | 100,000,000 ALO |
| Foreign Affairs | 5,300,000,000 ALO | 200,000,000 ALO | 1,250,000,000 ALO |
| Internal Affairs | 17,000,000,000 ALO | 30,000,000 ALO | 100,000,000 ALO |
| Finance | 7,000,000,000 ALO | 50,000,000 ALO | 200,000,000 ALO |
| Defence | 30,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 2,250,000,000 ALO |
| Justice | 35,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO |
| Infrastructure and Transport | 30,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 2,000,000,000 ALO |
| Health and Social Services | 18,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 2,250,000,000 ALO |
| Education and Culture | 25,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 2,250,000,000 ALO |
| Science and Technology | 4,000,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO | 2,000,000,000 ALO |
| Food and Agriculture | 6,500,000,000 ALO | 30,000,000 ALO | 100,000,000 ALO |
| Environment and Tourism | 2,000,000,000 ALO | 500,000,000 ALO | 1,500,000,000 ALO |
| Trade and Industry | 10,000,000,000 ALO | 40,000,000 ALO | 100,000,000 ALO |
| Total | 189,840,000,000 ALO | 9,870,000,000 ALO | 15,600,000,000 ALO |
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 14:30:42, September 23, 2007 CET | From | Democratic Rationalists (PrCoa) | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | 4) The Ministry of Finance handles financial matters, and ensures compliance with Alorian tax law. In addition to staff salaries for its offices in Libertia, this ministry requires salaries for compliance offices and auditors around Aloria. 5) The Ministry of Defence has long been woefully underfunded. Aloria's army scavenges for spare parts for its two generations obsolete equipment, and her navy has been reduced to a skeleton crew. While the Democratic Rationalists entertain no imperial ambitions for Aloria, maintaining an adequate defence is the prime imperative of any nation. |
| Date | 14:35:06, September 23, 2007 CET | From | Democratic Rationalists (PrCoa) | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | 6) Justice: the budget for the Ministry of Justice helps put Aloria's Defence budget into context. Under the old budget, we were spending *as much for Aloria's federal police force as for Aloria's military.* One of two things *must* be true. Either Aloria's military is grossly underfunded, or Aloria's Ministry of Justice is grossly overfunded. We hold the former to be true. 7) Infrastructure and Transport: building and maintaining roads, bridges, canals, docks, railways, etc. is vital. 8) Out of the the Health and Social Services budget comes funding for Aloria's public health care system, its unemployment and disability benefits, and other safety-net costs. Normally, we wouldn't think this budget should approach Aloria's military budget. But our position is that the military is underfunded, not that Aloria's emaciated social services are overfunded. |
| Date | 14:37:10, September 23, 2007 CET | From | Democratic Rationalists (PrCoa) | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | Too much typing for now. More later. Would like to point out briefly that out of Environment and Tourism comes funding to fight forest fires and to cean up toxic waste and oil spills. Maintaining Aloria's beautiful environment should be a top priority. |
| Date | 17:18:55, September 23, 2007 CET | From | Democratic Rationalists (PrCoa) | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | Also, we have more than enough money to pay for these. |
| Date | 19:22:13, September 23, 2007 CET | From | Social Liberalism Party | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | Although it's true that we can afford this kind of budget, it doesn't leave us any surplus in case of a national emergency, or unexpected cost blowouts. We vote yes, but we would like to see less spent on Environment and Tourism. |
| Date | 19:31:32, September 23, 2007 CET | From |  Moderate Libertarian Party (NoCoalition) | To | Debating the Budget proposal of December 2459 |
| Message | Here come the tax increases. |
subscribe to this discussion - unsubscribe
Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 351 | ||||
| no | Total Seats: 208 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 141 |
| Random fact: Moderation will not implement nation renaming requests where the proposed name does not comply with the requirements set out in the Nation Renaming Guide: http://forum.particracy.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6364 |
| Random quote: "We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice." - Friedrich August von Hayek |