NE3: November-February Northeast Budget FY2013

[sentinel]

Lets talk budget, folks.

Let me set the stage for you first.

OUR LAST BUDGET, increased spending and lowered taxes. We had a $30 surplus after doing that. That surplus went to a stimulus package, job training program and the disaster relief fund. In addition, we passed a Federally financed stimulus package on top of our own. The federally financed stimulus package invested in police, firefighters, hospitals, schools and prisons.

This budget does not increase spending excluding updates to mandatory spending determined by legislation (The Northeastern Higher Education Act and the Healthy Northeast Act). This budget, with the last budget's rates, started with a $40 billion surplus.

My proposal widdles that surplus down to $12 billion via tax cuts. This budget halves the income tax for those making under $99,999/yr. This budget reduces the income rate for each bracket above $99,999/yr by 1%.

My proposal also halves the sales tax.

My plans for the remainder of the $12 billion surplus include the following if the bills are passed:

Disaster Relief [Mandatory]: $2.4612 billion
Northeast Drug Courts Act: - $1.5 billion
Northeast Rehabilitation and Reform Act - $0.575 billion
Earthling's Regional Parks bill would cost around $25 million if passed.
Remainder of the surplus: $7.7448 billion to be allocated via future legislation

I urge the Assembly to pass this budget. It holds the progressive values we enshrined in the last budget --and this budget gives the tax relief that Northeast citizens deserve.

[sentinel]

Glad to have your support gents, lets see what Talleyrand and Cincinnatus have to say

[sentinel]

Does the Northeast have a preexisting rainy day fund we can add the surplus to?

Yes. Regional law requires twenty percent of the surplus to go towards the rainy day or disaster fund. I've appropriated it via Executive Order last time we passed the budget. I'll do the same again. As for the remainder of the stimulus, I wanted to leave some so the Assembly had some room to do some work (or fun, it is a game after all) without breaking the bank

[sentinel]

Cloture motion anyone? Ya'll have to vote to end debate in order to vote for passage.

[sentinel]

I wonder if these, rather significant tax cuts are the best way to handle our 7% unemployment rate.  Should we cut income taxes, more so regarding brackets above the 100k mark?  Is a 50% reduction in sales tax too much?  

I think we need to shift some of the balance here towards stimulus.  Not to say that there shouldn't be a balance, but we run the risk of these tax cuts not having the ability to substantially improve the economy.  We need to balance tax cuts and government stimulus.    

I'm with Cincinnatus on this; the extent of the some of the tax cuts could be mitigated a little bit so we can pass a heavier stimulus and bring down the unemployment rate below 7%. We have the most efficient government in the nation and yet that figure is somewhat disappointing.

The income tax rates are quite low, and could easily be tweaked to provide more revenue without cutting too deeply in the citizenry's pocket (The same applies to the sales tax).

The Game Moderator has already spoken on the policies I've backed. As of tonight, unemployment in the Northeast is 6.1%. We need to continue the policies of fiscal responsibility and progressive values that the North holds dear.

First, I want to talk about honoring our promises. During the Scott Administration, we raised rates on the wealthiest in order to finance disaster relief with the promise that it was a temporary tax raise. This budget keeps that promise.

Lets talk about stimulus. The spending levels in this bill are about 8% higher than the first Scott budget. They are slightly lower than my last budget because we reformed how we financed higher education. We pay for all students to attend public school in the Northeast now. This is a stimulus in itself.

Last session we passed two stimulus packages. The Governor's Large Package Act [federally financed] was a $9.2 billion package while the Northeast Stimulus Act [regionally financed] was a $15 billion package. This session, I am perfectly fine using the remainder of the $7 billion surplus for another stimulus package.

In addition, the default spending levels in this and the previous budget has billions more in infrastructure spending. The largest investment in infrastructure the Northeast has even seen has occurred over the past few months.

We've given people job training programs, we've given the people infrastructure jobs, we've given people jobs rebuilding and upgrading our schools, police stations, hospitals, and fire stations. Now its time to give people money to take home with them at the end of the day because they deserve it --and the Northeast region is in good shape.

We can always do better, but this budget is the right balance for now in the Northeast.