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Bill: Budget proposal of June 2179

Details

Submitted by[?]: Radical Democratic Party

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: November 2180

Description[?]:

This is mainly a budget adjustment to the new laws that have been passed since the last budget went into effect. (OOC: I assume something like 1USD = 1 INS in terms of purchasing power, a big revaluation of the Shapir. This gives Indrala a per capita GDP higher than the USA’s in PPP terms, but lower than Luxembourg’s. I want a big GDP for international commerce and warfare purposes once these features are introduced.)

We have taken as reference:
*Indrala’s GDP of INS 3.2 trillion (OOC: the game changes GDP downwards whenever the budget is reduced—so let’s assume a revaluation of the Shapir)
*Indrala’s per-capita GDP of 49,000 INS
*Indrala’s mean public servant wage of INS 50,000.
*The industry standard of INS 150,000 for highly qualified professionals.

HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: We have reduced the budget of this Department to 30 million INS. The Head of Government needs not more than this for his official residence, reasonable expenses, and some 100 specialist staff (Prime Minister's Strategy Unit).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 23.5 to 23 billion INS.
*500 million to maintain 50 modest embassies (estimated cost, 2.5 million INS each) and other Ministry expenses.
*22.5 billion INS will be destined to foreign aid, some 0.7% of GDP (OOC: RL U.N. recommendation)

INTERNAL AFFAIRS: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 45 billion INS:
*Public order and safety: This includes policing, jails, and disaster preparedness. 40 billion INS. We expect local governments to spend another 40 billion INS on this item. [OOC: total spending as a fraction of GDP (2.5%) comes from UK budget.]
*Civil affairs: 5 billion INS. This includes Civil Registry functions, elections, etc.

FINANCE: We have reduced the budget of this Department, from 3.6 to 1.8 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*Central Bank operations: 100 million INS
*Printing money, etc.: 100 million INS
*Budget Office: 50 million INS
*Economic Analysis Unit: 50 million INS
*Taxation Bureau: 1.5 billion INS, enough for 15000 tax auditors to audit a random 5% of some 36 million tax returns (two days on average per audit).

DEFENCE: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 40 to 35 billion INS. (OOC: Japan spends 1% of GDP on defence, but they don’t have nuclear weapons)

JUSTICE: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 33 billion INS, around 1% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 52 to 49 billion INS, divided as follows:
*Transport and communications: 37 billion INS, around 1.1% of GDP.
*Energy infrastructure: We have suppressed this item, as this is now totally provided by the private sector.
*Public housing: 11 billion INS, around 0.3% of GDP, in rent subsidies.
*Other infrastructure, administration: 1 billion INS.
(OOC: all GDP percentages from Sweden’s budget)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES: We reduced this Department’s budget, from 265 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*Health: 200 billion INS. Based on current patterns, we expect another 54 billion INS to be spent by richer Indralans on private health care. [OOC: Japan, with the world’s best health figures, spends the same 7.9% of GDP on health (TEPWIF).]
*Unemployment insurance: 25.7 billion INS, to give 2.6 million unemployed Indralans a subsidy of 9,000 INS per person plus 3,000 INS per dependent (average of 0.3 dependents per person, assuming that half of non-working age Indralans are children).
*Old age income support: 21.6 billion INS, to give 20% of Indrala’s elderly (2.4 million) an average subsidy of 9,000 INS per person. The rest are assumed to depend on their pension payments. (OOC: Follows normal practice, where Social Security payments are a separate payroll tax.)
*Child subsidy: 6.6 billion INS, to give the poorest 20% of Indrala’s children (2.2 million of them) an average subsidy of 3,000 INS per person.
*Immigration: 9.5 billion INS will be destined to the assimilation of immigrants and refugees, around 0.3% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)
*Administration and miscellaneous expenses: 1.6 billion INS (an increase in real terms, the new programmes are more expensive to administrate).

EDUCATION AND CULTURE: We have reduced this Department’s budget from 111 to 50 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*School education: 30 billion INS school vouchers for around 30% of children. We expect the richer Indralan 70% of families to spend another 70 billion INS in education, for a total of INS 100 billion, around 3% of GDP. [OOC: Singapore spends 3.7% of GDP on education, but this includes higher education (TEPWIF). The most trusted international comparison (http://www.timss.org) shows that Singapore’s school system is probably the best in the world.]
*Nurseries: 9 billion INS for the government’s extensive nursery programme.
*Culture: 11 billion INS for funding cultural activities, etc., around 0.3% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 40 billion INS, a bit over 1% of GDP. Most of this will be spent on funding useful research. Industry subsidies and the Indralan space program have been terminated.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: We have reduced the budget of this Department, from 1 billion to 500 million INS. Half of this will fund 1000 agricultural and 4000 food safety inspectors. The other half will go to agricultural research and miscellaneous expenses.

ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 4 billion INS, around 0.1% of GDP. This funds the inspection, conservation, recycling, and decontamination programs carried out by the central government. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

TRADE AND INDUSTRY: We have increased the budget of this Department, from 2.2 to 2.7 billion INS. This Department’s budget will be broken down as follows:
*Industrial Economic Analysis Unit: 30 million INS
*Competition enforcement (1000 inspectors and special prosecutors): 250 million INS
*Industrial health and safety: 1400 million INS, some 0.04% of GDP (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)
*Administrative expenses: 20 million INS
*Promotion of cooperatives: This is a new item, with 1 billion INS in technical help. Direct help is being implemented as tax breaks (OOC: this would explain our measly return from corporation tax).


OOC: Whenever I could not estimate costs directly, I used information expressed as GDP percentages. Sources:
*The Economist Pocket World in Figures (TEPWIF), 2005 edition.
*Sweden’s 2004 budget, http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/5939;jsessionid=awjMVQ7sy5Of. Sweden is a unitary country, and has a social-democratic culture similar to Indrala’s.
*UK 2005 budget summary, http://budget2005.treasury.gov.uk/page_09.html.
* The 9,000 and 3,000 INS subsidies are derived from the 2003 U.S. poverty line (for a single-person household and per dependent, respectively). See http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/03poverty.htm.

Feel free to comment on these figures, my assumptions, or any items that I may have forgotten.

Proposals

Debate

These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:

Date02:13:56, February 02, 2006 CET
FromRadical Democratic Party
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessageThis is mainly a budget adjustment to the new laws that have been passed since the last budget went into effect. (OOC: I assume something like 1USD = 1 INS in terms of purchasing power, a big revaluation of the Shapir. This gives Indrala a per capita GDP higher than the USA’s in PPP terms, but lower than Luxembourg’s. I want a big GDP for international commerce and warfare purposes once these features are introduced.)

We have taken as reference:
*Indrala’s GDP of INS 3.2 trillion (OOC: the game changes GDP downwards whenever the budget is reduced—so let’s assume a revaluation of the Shapir)
*Indrala’s per-capita GDP of 49,000 INS
*Indrala’s mean public servant wage of INS 50,000.
*The industry standard of INS 150,000 for highly qualified professionals.

HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: We have reduced the budget of this Department to 30 million INS. The Head of Government needs not more than this for his official residence, reasonable expenses, and some 100 specialist staff (Prime Minister's Strategy Unit).

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 23.5 to 23 billion INS.
*500 million to maintain 50 modest embassies (estimated cost, 2.5 million INS each) and other Ministry expenses.
*22.5 billion INS will be destined to foreign aid, some 0.7% of GDP (OOC: RL U.N. recommendation)

INTERNAL AFFAIRS: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 45 billion INS:
*Public order and safety: This includes policing, jails, and disaster preparedness. 40 billion INS. We expect local governments to spend another 40 billion INS on this item. [OOC: total spending as a fraction of GDP (2.5%) comes from UK budget.]
*Civil affairs: 5 billion INS. This includes Civil Registry functions, elections, etc.

FINANCE: We have reduced the budget of this Department, from 3.6 to 1.8 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*Central Bank operations: 100 million INS
*Printing money, etc.: 100 million INS
*Budget Office: 50 million INS
*Economic Analysis Unit: 50 million INS
*Taxation Bureau: 1.5 billion INS, enough for 15000 tax auditors to audit a random 5% of some 36 million tax returns (two days on average per audit).

DEFENCE: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 40 to 35 billion INS. (OOC: Japan spends 1% of GDP on defence, but they don’t have nuclear weapons)

JUSTICE: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 33 billion INS, around 1% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT: We have reduced the budget of this Department from 52 to 49 billion INS, divided as follows:
*Transport and communications: 37 billion INS, around 1.1% of GDP.
*Energy infrastructure: We have suppressed this item, as this is now totally provided by the private sector.
*Public housing: 11 billion INS, around 0.3% of GDP, in rent subsidies.
*Other infrastructure, administration: 1 billion INS.
(OOC: all GDP percentages from Sweden’s budget)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES: We reduced this Department’s budget, from 265 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*Health: 200 billion INS. Based on current patterns, we expect another 54 billion INS to be spent by richer Indralans on private health care. [OOC: Japan, with the world’s best health figures, spends the same 7.9% of GDP on health (TEPWIF).]
*Unemployment insurance: 25.7 billion INS, to give 2.6 million unemployed Indralans a subsidy of 9,000 INS per person plus 3,000 INS per dependent (average of 0.3 dependents per person, assuming that half of non-working age Indralans are children).
*Old age income support: 21.6 billion INS, to give 20% of Indrala’s elderly (2.4 million) an average subsidy of 9,000 INS per person. The rest are assumed to depend on their pension payments. (OOC: Follows normal practice, where Social Security payments are a separate payroll tax.)
*Child subsidy: 6.6 billion INS, to give the poorest 20% of Indrala’s children (2.2 million of them) an average subsidy of 3,000 INS per person.
*Immigration: 9.5 billion INS will be destined to the assimilation of immigrants and refugees, around 0.3% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)
*Administration and miscellaneous expenses: 1.6 billion INS (an increase in real terms, the new programmes are more expensive to administrate).

EDUCATION AND CULTURE: We have reduced this Department’s budget from 111 to 50 billion INS, broken down as follows:
*School education: 30 billion INS school vouchers for around 30% of children. We expect the richer Indralan 70% of families to spend another 70 billion INS in education, for a total of INS 100 billion, around 3% of GDP. [OOC: Singapore spends 3.7% of GDP on education, but this includes higher education (TEPWIF). The most trusted international comparison (http://www.timss.org) shows that Singapore’s school system is probably the best in the world.]
*Nurseries: 9 billion INS for the government’s extensive nursery programme.
*Culture: 11 billion INS for funding cultural activities, etc., around 0.3% of GDP. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 40 billion INS, a bit over 1% of GDP. Most of this will be spent on funding useful research. Industry subsidies and the Indralan space program have been terminated.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: We have reduced the budget of this Department, from 1 billion to 500 million INS. Half of this will fund 1000 agricultural and 4000 food safety inspectors. The other half will go to agricultural research and miscellaneous expenses.

ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM: We have maintained the budget of this Department at 4 billion INS, around 0.1% of GDP. This funds the inspection, conservation, recycling, and decontamination programs carried out by the central government. (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)

TRADE AND INDUSTRY: We have increased the budget of this Department, from 2.2 to 2.7 billion INS. This Department’s budget will be broken down as follows:
*Industrial Economic Analysis Unit: 30 million INS
*Competition enforcement (1000 inspectors and special prosecutors): 250 million INS
*Industrial health and safety: 1400 million INS, some 0.04% of GDP (OOC: GDP percentage from Sweden’s budget)
*Administrative expenses: 20 million INS
*Promotion of cooperatives: This is a new item, with 1 billion INS in technical help. Direct help is being implemented as tax breaks (OOC: this would explain our measly return from corporation tax).


OOC: Whenever I could not estimate costs directly, I used information expressed as GDP percentages. Sources:
*The Economist Pocket World in Figures (TEPWIF)
*Sweden’s 2004 budget, http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/5939;jsessionid=awjMVQ7sy5Of. Sweden is a unitary country, and has a social-democratic culture similar to Indrala’s.
*UK 2005 budget summary, http://budget2005.treasury.gov.uk/page_09.html.
* The 9,000 and 3,000 INS subsidies are derived from the 2003 U.S. poverty line (for a single-person household and per dependent, respectively). See http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/03poverty.htm.

Feel free to comment on these figures, my assumptions, or any items that I may have forgotten.

Date05:54:51, February 02, 2006 CET
FromInrala no Ikolowagitou (Green)
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessageMuch as we regret the necessity for any military expenditure, the sad truth is that we live in a world where other nations will prey upon the unprepared.The proposed military alocation is drastically insufficent, given our current treaty obligations and the international situation in general.

At the very least we should complete the capital expenditure projects initiated under the previus emergency spending bills. These drastic swings in budget are extremely demoralising to the troops, and detrimental to the Indralan economy. We suggest an immediate return to expenditure levels of around 80,000,000,000 INS, to be followed by a phased reduction to 50,000,000,000 INS over the following 5 years.


Date12:12:51, February 02, 2006 CET
FromRadical Democratic Party
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessageOOC: Which capital expenditure projeects!!??? Let's agree on these, and then we can allocate the funding!

Date05:33:15, February 03, 2006 CET
FromInrala no Ikolowagitou (Green)
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessageOOC: Let's deal with that by discussions on the Wiki, or in a separate resolution.

IC: The Axis and their puppets are unlikely to sit politely on the sidelines while we hold interminable cross-party conferences. The assembly approved the plans brought forward by the military under the recent emergency legislation. By all means let us rationalise and streamline those where appropriate, and consider the longer-term requirements, but simply scrapping capital-intensive projects part way is immensely wasteful.


Date14:15:34, February 03, 2006 CET
FromRadical Democratic Party
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessagePlease note that the Defense Budget has not changed in the recent past. Let's vote the other changes right away, and we'll update the budget ASAP. Thankfully, we paid in advance for our new weapon systems.

Date18:10:57, February 03, 2006 CET
FromRadical Democratic Party
ToDebating the Budget proposal of June 2179
MessageOOC: Lame excuse. We really agree that the military budget should go up. But we would like to keep this discussion separate.

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Voting

Vote Seats
yes
    

Total Seats: 61

no

    Total Seats: 0

    abstain
        

    Total Seats: 39


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