Mideast Assembly Thread

[tmthforu94]

Whoa, whoa.

First Tmth, I am bringing this up simply because some members of the Assembly feel that the way to solve the Wiki problem is to simply create more positions, rather than helping you out themselves. I am stressing why a Lieutenant Governor would harm the region's activity without any plausible benefit.

I'd also like to add, Mr. "President-elect" that in case you haven't read our Constitution in a while...

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It hasn't been thirty days yet, so it would be unconstitutional for the Assembly to appoint an acting Governor.

Reread what I wrote please.

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Nowhere did I say you should be removed right now. Also, I should note that you are primarily responsible for the legislation passed under your watch, not under the administrations before you, per the Mideast Constitution. I encourage you to start in your administration and go backwards.

My apologies for snapping at you last night. It was midnight, I was tired, and it simply bugged me that people were criticizing me for not updating the wiki but didn't say a word when previous administrations have gone months without updating the Wiki.
P.S. The wiki that I am responsible for is almost completely updated.

[tmthforu94]

Would the Assembly be able to consider multiple bills at once? I am hoping to have action taken fairly quickly on the ConCon resolution to ensure that my administration can hit the ground running with the effort.

That sounds nice, but it would create a lot of confusion in the Assembly if we had multiple bills. If the Assembly thinks otherwise, I'd be open to trying it. I still think our best option would be a sub-board, but oh well.

I would encourage the Speaker and Assembly to quickly pass the ConCon resolution next, so the administration in waiting won't have to wait on our region to get it started.

[tmthforu94]

With that the Weighted Grades Amendment is passed and presented to the Governor for his signature.

Now does anyone have any other bills to put forward before I put up my budget bill?

Can we do the ConCon first just to get that out of the way? I believe Ben proposed it. There was also the regional judge bill which was introduced. I'm just suggesting bills that wouldn't take a long time to debate so we can get them out of the weigh.

[tmthforu94]

With that the Weighted Grades Amendment is passed and presented to the Governor for his signature.

Now does anyone have any other bills to put forward before I put up my budget bill?

Can we do the ConCon first just to get that out of the way? I believe Ben proposed it. There was also the regional judge bill which was introduced. I'm just suggesting bills that wouldn't take a long time to debate so we can get them out of the weigh.

the budget is going to take longer than anything...since we'll have to come up with our first ever budget

And both of those bill would potentially take 2-3 days. After those, we'll be able to focus the rest of the session on the Budget instead of trying to cram them in at the end of the session. The ConCon resolution more than anything needs passed now.

[tmthforu94]

Ben, you have been an asset to the Mideast region. I wish you the best of luck in your new role.

[tmthforu94]

Both of Barnes points should be done as soon as possible.

As for a Delegate, I'm fine with whoever the Assembly chooses . I trust y'all to pick someone good. I'd encourage anyone who is interested to publicly say that they are so that the Assembly will have something to work with. I think we have at least one person who has expressed interest so far. If anything, poll Mideasterners on who they want.

[tmthforu94]

Dean is supposed to open the vote.

and when Ben left the Dean is now?...

I'm not completely sure. Though you swore in before HappyWarrior back in March, you didn't win reelection in May, but were appointed. You didn't swear in until the 30th of May. If I had to guess, I'd say HappyWarrior is the Dean, but I'm not 100% on that assumption.

[tmthforu94]

Keep in mind, Assembly, that Afleitch also needs to be confirmed as Judge fairly soon. I'd say that, as well as choosing a ConCon delegate, needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. Then we can move on to other legislation.

[tmthforu94]

Shall we move on to vote to confirm afleitch for Superior Court?

That'd be my suggestion. After that, we can begin on the budget. Fun!

[tmthforu94]

I ask the Assembly to consider bypassing a period of questioning and heading straight to the vote. Afleitch has a history of being open-minded and bi-partisan, and I'm very confident he'd make an excellent Superior Court Judge.

[tmthforu94]

I thank the Assembly for it's confidence

Congratulations on getting confirmed!

[tmthforu94]

I must admit, I am also skeptical on Article 4 of this bill. I'll have to do some more research on this issue, to see who this could primarily affect.

[tmthforu94]

I hereby withdraw my bill.

It will be back, I promise.

Okay since everything so far is behind the scenes, shall we just throw sections of the budget out here and then work on things and once we call it good slap everything together into a real, full budget?

Maybe we should develop exact rules of procedure when working on the budget?

Thank you for putting this on a hold, Barnes.
Assembly, let's work together and try and get this budget through by the end of the month, at the latest. It can be done!

[tmthforu94]

I hereby withdraw my bill.

It will be back, I promise.

Okay since everything so far is behind the scenes, shall we just throw sections of the budget out here and then work on things and once we call it good slap everything together into a real, full budget?

Maybe we should develop exact rules of procedure when working on the budget?

What do you have in mind?

Well, perhaps allowing multiple "sections" to be considered at on time. Or maybe even setting a maximum amount of debate time, and once the time runs out, the approved sections are automatically merged into the budget, which is then voted on.

I'm for the multiple sections are once. However, I don't think we should limit debate on the most important thing this Assembly will have done since the creation of Atlasia

I'm siding with A-Bob here. Though I'd like to get more done this session, if all we get accomplished is a good budget, I am very fine with that.

[tmthforu94]

Since the Mideast is also creating a budget process, I invite citizens of this fine region to explore some of the cool US federal budget sims I posted in a thread on the Economics board.
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=122358.0

Try your hand at creating an ideal budget and share your results. I believe these sims can give us an idea of what works and what doesn't in making Atlasian (federal and regional) budgets workable and a fun source of debate over taxes, spending and deficits.

Give it a shot--its actually fun for political addicts like us!

Thanks for posting this, Badger. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time today playing with this now.

[tmthforu94]

I'm pretty good with the Infrastructure portion. A-Bob, if I may ask, how did you come up with these numbers?

[tmthforu94]

I'm pretty good with the Infrastructure portion. A-Bob, if I may ask, how did you come up with these numbers?

Virginia. And then considered how many more states we had. It's pretty hard since we are neither a state nor federal government to look off of either budget

If possible, do you think you could provide me with a link to where you got Virginia's budget? Or possibly just the numbers there? Thank you.

[tmthforu94]

My suggestion: 40% based on experience, 35% based on degree of education, and 25% based on merit. Basically, the opposite of yours, Barnes. If we make salaries based more on how their students perform and less on experience or degree, teachers are going to flee currently failing schools because if they stay there, their salary would drop.

I'm going to try and look up some information on how much money states within the Mideast spend each year on education.

Something I just thought of: We're passing a budget basically every four months. Are we considering every four months to be a year or four years? I'm a bit lost on that, so some clarification would be greatly appreciated.

[tmthforu94]

My suggestion: 40% based on experience, 35% based on degree of education, and 25% based on merit. Basically, the opposite of yours, Barnes. If we make salaries based more on how their students perform and less on experience or degree, teachers are going to flee currently failing schools because if they stay there, their salary would drop.

Just because a teacher has been teaching a long time doesn't mean they're a good teacher...

I know that. But I also don't think we should be punishing a teacher just because s/he is in a failing school.

[tmthforu94]

My suggestion: 40% based on experience, 35% based on degree of education, and 25% based on merit. Basically, the opposite of yours, Barnes. If we make salaries based more on how their students perform and less on experience or degree, teachers are going to flee currently failing schools because if they stay there, their salary would drop.

Just because a teacher has been teaching a long time doesn't mean they're a good teacher...

I know that. But I also don't think we should be punishing a teacher just because s/he is in a failing school.

Well, first off, I believe they're pay should be calculated based on the success of their students, not the school at large. Further more, 40%, while a large portion, is somewhat outweighed by experience and education combined.

Rewarding teachers based on the grades their students get will cause many teachers giving their students higher grades than they deserve just so they can get a better salary. They won't try and challenge their students, because if they do, their grades may drops which would result in a salary drop. Teachers would be handing out A's left and right.

[tmthforu94]

Please, while that possibility does exist, I doubt it would ever lead to the extreme you think it would. Also, the teacher or teachers doing that would swiftly be fired. And, if you don't think that the punishment would be implemented, we could easily put it in as a provision in the budget.

I actually just had a conversation with my mother over this. Why not get advice from a teacher?

"Mom, if a law was implemented where your salary was based on student performance don't you think many teachers would boost their students grades and not challenge them because they won't want to risk having a salary cut?"
"Of course teachers would. Teachers would stop challenging their students to succeed and wouldn't grade as hard as they normally would."

I know this isn't a perfect example, but I'm just trying to show you that it would exist. I'd have a very hard time agreeing with this portion of the budget with the percentages you suggested, to be honest.

Another issue: Sometimes teachers get stuck with a bad class. Last year, 6 of the 12 students in my Mom's class had IEP's. Why should she be slapped with a salary cut for that?

[tmthforu94]

How about 38% based on experience, 32% based on degree of education, and 30% based on merit for compromise?

I'm willing to accept these numbers.

[tmthforu94]

Also consider this: How many years is the Virginia budget for? If we're doing each budget every four years, we'll need to multiply again by two or four.

[tmthforu94]

Also consider this: How many years is the Virginia budget for? If we're doing each budget every four years, we'll need to multiply again by two or four.

since that specific piece is so important. I think we need to discuss a national vote to decide does one month equal one month or one year as this will effect all spending and if we aren't unified in this decision everything is thrown off

I think we need to consider each term as four years. That'll produce some big numbers in our budget which will scare people at first, but people will just have to be reminded that it is for four years, not one.

[tmthforu94]

Hey guys, we need to make some decisions. Like whether we're going by months or years, etc.