Pacific Governor's Press Room

[True Democrat]

Sounds good, just don't get to obsessed with new poisitions like the NE.

[The Duke]

I have decided, in my power as Governor to place an iniative on the ballot that will abolish the post of Lt. Governor and replace it with two seperate posts, that of Chief Justice and that of Attorney General.  Text to be made public soon.

Which is pretty good since were now 12 days away from a Lt. Governor's election and so far as I know we have no announced candidates for the second straight time.

[The Duke]

Text of proposed Amendment:

Amendment to Restructure Pacific Government

Section 1
1. Section 1:6 of the Pacific Constitution shall be amended to read "The Lieutenant Governor shall be charged with maintainging and updating the Region's Atlas Wiki page, and shall supervise all elections and referenda. But if the Lieutenant Governor is absent or unable to act (due to conflict of interest or otherwise), the Governor may designate another citizen of the Pacific to temporarily perform his duties."

Section 2
1. The position of Chief Justice of the Pacific Region is hereby created.
2. The Chief Justice shall be the presiding judge in all cases, criminal, civil, or otherwise, and will be empowered to determine the outcome of said cases.
3. The Chief Justice is empowered with the authority of Judicial Review, and may review the Constitutionality of laws, if a citizen petitions him to do so, in an open hearing.
4. The Chief Justice shall take his position on appointment by the Governor, and upon confirmation by the Pacific Legislature.  His appointment shall be for an term of life with good behavior.  He must take the oath of office before assuming his duties.
5. The requirements to be named Chief Justice are that a person must be a citizen of the Pacific, a registered voter, and have at least 200 posts.


So, what this does is strips the Lt. Governor of his judicial role and gives him the role of maintaining our sorely inadequate Wiki page.  It creates the position of Chief Justice to take up the judicial role formerly held by the Lt. Governor.

This is an idea I've talked about that has come to me based on what I think the practical needs of the government are, specifically that we need a good Wiki page and that the executive and judicial authority had ought not be together.

Any thoughts?

[The Duke]

I am idsappointed to hear that crime in this Region has risen.  Despite our best efforts to improve the economy which resulted in the strongest ecnomy of any region, crime has risen nonetheless.

I believe there are two reasons for this rise in crime.

The firststems from a misunderstandng I'm afraid some criminals have about the status of the death penalty.  It seems a common view that we have abolished the death penalty.  We haven't.  The death penalty has simply had a moratorium placed on it for three and a half months.  My intention is not to commute any death sentences, as it is not my role as Governor to determine what a sentence should or to determine the guilt or innocence of inmates.  My role is to execute the laws fairly.  There is reason to believe this penalty is not being applied fairly.

My goal was to find a Lt. Governor, which is mostly a do-nothing job, and have him investigate the fairness of the death penalty's application and make recommendations on how to end discrimination in the justice system.  Since the job has proven very difficult to fill, I have not had a chance to do this.  I now have a bill before the legislature that will create an independent position of Chief Justice, and whoever is chosen to fill that position will be given the job of this review of the fairness of the death penalty.

We have not gotten rid of the death penalty, we've just put it on hold.  So if you're a crimnal and you think you can't be executed, don't be fooled.

The second reason has to do with the adoption of the Arizona Revised Statutes as our unified law code.  The Arizona Code is a pretty tough document when it comes to criminal law, but there is one area where its adoption has softened our laws.  Arozona has no Three Strikes Law, and California did.  Now, the Region's largest state no longer has its crime rate suppressed by this important law.

If re-elected, I propose to add California's old Three Strike Law to our Region's law code, and these tougher sentences will put dangerous criminals behind bars and keep them there so that repeat offenders cannot hurt innocent people anymore.

Crime is up, so we'd better get tough soon.

Thank you, and good day.

[The Duke]

I will be opening a vote on Jesus' voting bill soon.  Then, I want to start debate on two initiatives I'm putting forward as the basis of my second term agenda.

The first, as noted above, is a three strikes law.

The second is a a new budget for the new fiscal year.

Our fiscal year coincides with our Calendar year out here, so it's time to pass a new budget.  Thanks to sound fiscal management, we have a substantial surplus, and I want to establish a "Rainy Day Fund" where surpluses will be accumulated and held where politiicans can't spend it unless we need to.  I want to increase department budgets commensurate with the rate of inflation.  I also want to reduce income taxes, since we have such a huge surplus projected for this year and so much money in surplus from last year, I think we should give people some of their money back.  We should only tax what we need to tax to fnd what we need to spend, and right now we tax more than we spend.

I also want to wish everyone a happy new year, and anyone interested in permanently taking the job of Chief Justice, please notify me of your desires.

[Platypus]

re:three strikes. I support it, if those strikes are for serious crimes. My suggestion is a "50 point system", with crimes like speeding 5mph over the speed limit worth 1-2 points, and murder 50+, etc. Once at 50 points, they must be imprisoned for life (or a very long period); at 10 they can be for a short period, 20 for a medium length period, 30 for a meduium sentence and must be inprisoned, 40 for a long sentence and must be imprisoned. Points 'expire' after a set period, say 10 years, so that if an 80 year old has accumulated 50 speeding tickets he isn't put away for the rest of his life.

[The Duke]

Budget time:

Main spending changes are that all department saw icnreases roughly in line with inflation and population growth, except for health care and universities which are experiencing higher rates of inflation and transportation, which has been a total mess out here for decades.

There will also be a reduction in tax rates.  The top bracket will be lowered from 15% to 14%, and the next highest bracket lowered from 12% to 11%.

New Budget
-$265.0 billion in total expenditures
       -Department of Education - $104.6 billion
       -Department of Health - $68.7 billion
       -Department of University $34.0 billion
       -Department of Corrections - $24.2
       -Department of Transportation - $12.0 billion
       -Department of Resources - $3.7 billion dollars
       -Department of Housing - $1.0 billion
       -Administrative Costs - $16.8 billion

Total Revenue-$265.5 billion
       -Federal Aid - $71.2 billion
       -Income Taxes - $187.5 billion
       -Sin Taxes - $3.6 billion
       -Gambling Taxes - $3.2 billion

-Surplus - $0.5 billion

-Rainy Day Fund - $11.3 billion
************************************************************

So any comments constiuents have about thenew budget, please make them in the legislature thread.  I want to vote in this relatively quickly if at all possible.

[The Duke]

Note to pacificans: Debate is continuing on the budget and I'm interested in hearing people's comments on the idea of combining the Department of Education and the Department of University.

[The Duke]

Oh, and I'm officially endorsing Fezzy Festoon for Governor of the Northeast and Rin-Chan for Lt. Governor of the Northeast.  Not that they need my help, of course.

[True Democrat]

Note to pacificans: Debate is continuing on the budget and I'm interested in hearing people's comments on the idea of combining the Department of Education and the Department of University.

Don't use dashes, it makes everything look negative

[The Duke]

In my final post as Governor, and probably my final post in the fantasy boards, I announce that I have no intention of filling the empty pacific Senate seat.  The Pacific Region does not exists.  The Seante does not exist.  I am not actually Governor of anything.  Therefore, filling the seat is not relevant.

[bgwah]

LOL. You already resigned. You aren't the governor anymore.

[Peter]

His resignation is effective midnight tonight I believe.

[bgwah]

His resignation is effective midnight tonight I believe.

He's still an idiot.

[WMS]

His resignation is effective midnight tonight I believe.

He's still an idiot.

And here I had been so impressed with how pleasant you've acted

[Gabu]

I announce that I have intention of filling the empty pacific Senate seat.

Oh, good, I was worried that you might become bitter and try not to fill the Senate seat.

[The Duke]

I announce that I have intention of filling the empty pacific Senate seat.

Oh, good, I was worried that you might become bitter and try not to fill the Senate seat.

Typo.

Not that it matters, Alcon has done what he has seen fit to do, as is his prerogative.