Lazy Legislating in the South

[tmthforu94]

As I've brought up on Discord and elsewhere, I am concerned by recent actions in the South, specifically in the Chamber of Delegates.

I will give credit where it is due - while I didn't vote for him, MB has been active as Governor and has been driving the agenda in the region for the past few weeks...without him, the Chamber would be almost completely dormant. We are seeing problems on multiple fronts and I am calling out BOTH sides for the issues. The Laborite delegation not only participates in little debate, but also misses votes. They're doing nothing to contribute to the discussion. I will explain below the issues I am seeing with Federalist delegates.

The biggest issues I've noticed is coming from the constitutional amendments, which is troublesome since those probably have the greatest lasting effect on the region. I will elaborate:

Starting with the Daylight Savings Time Amendment - this was introduced as the Southern elections are scheduled differently than the federal elections, which has created some confusion. Seem's reasonable, right? The ONLY debate on the bill came from S019, who isn't even living in the region, popping in to call out CoD leadership on voting procedure. Once the vote started, YT and Spark voted it down without giving an explanation, and the amendment failed. 3 Delegates didn't even vote. I brought up concerns in the thread asking why it was voted down and calling out the lack of the debate - no delegate responded.

The second amendment is the Changing our Capitol Amendment.I will continue to lay out why this amendment is inappropriate, here are a few reasons to start out:
1. We are in the midst of a worldwide crisis that has shut down our economy. Why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars (at least) to move the capitol? Is this a fiscally responsible use of tax dollars? I brought this up during the debate, no delegate responded before the vote.
2. The South OVERWHELMINGLY voted to keep the capitol in Nashville just over a year ago. Why does it needed to be voted on again?
3. The amendment is unclear on how the referendum is to take place, and should the capitol be changed, doesn't allow for a transition period for this to take effect.

During the vote, I reached out to all 5 delegates urging them to vote Nay, laying out my reasoning. Spark is the only one who engaged in a dialogue and heard me out. YT responded that he wanted the capitol in Austin, then encouraged me to speak out against it when it goes to The People, which I'm doing now.

Multiple concerns were brought up in this thread, none of them were addressed. The amendment is flawed as written from an implementation process, but the Chamber, as a whole, seemed too lazy to make fixes and just passed it anyway.


Look at these threads closely, and others. I know delegates will probably give RL reasonings for lack of activity, but this doesn't justify a total breakdown from the entire body - if everyone is facing issues, call a recess and don't push bills through.  What is most frustrating isn't the lack of debate, as that happens everywhere at times in the game, it is that valid concerns are being brought up by private citizens (not just me) and the Chamber is choosing to ignore them. A couple bills have received some debate, but by in large, there is a lack of quality legislation and debate occurring in our region. This may be happening in other regions as well, I am just paying closest attention to the South since it is my home region.

We must demand better from our elected officials.

X Tmthforu94

[Dr. MB]

x mb

[Spark]

I appreciated you sharing your concerns with me Tmth and I will encourage my colleagues in the Chamber. Will do whatever is necessary for the Southern people and to keep the Chamber running.

x Spark

[S019]

While I can’t sign this, I agree with the argument of the ex-President regarding Southern inactivity.

[fhtagn]

x fhtagn

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

While I can’t sign this, I agree with the argument of the ex-President regarding Southern inactivity.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

While I can’t sign this, I agree with the argument of the ex-President regarding Southern inactivity.

[thumb21]

People don't need to be writing essays or pages of legalese, but just a few sentences explaining your views on something, or responding to people's concerns can add a lot of value.

x Thumb21

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

X LouisvilleThunder, Senator representing the people of the South.

[Deep Dixieland Senator, Muad'dib (OSR MSR)]

x Muaddib
11th Speaker of the Chamber

There is also an Issue with the Referendum ballot not having the actual amendment that was passed by the Chamber. I will assume this was a cock up rather than enabling a power grab. Was there any notification of this referendum? I woke up this morning and discovered it, and saw that the text is just plain wrong.

Introducing a constitutional amendment:

Governor Terms Amendment
Article V, sections 5 and 6 of the Southern Constitution are amended to read as follows:

5. … the legislature can vote to elect a new governor. If the legislature fails to select a new governor within 14 days of the vacancy, the acting governor shall become governor for the remainder of the term and vacate their seat in the legislature. If the acting governor fails to open a vote to elect a new governor within 3 days of the vacancy, any member of the legislature may open a vote. ...

Section V.7 shall be redesignated V.6 and all subsequent sections shall be renumbered accordingly.

As can be seen in S.20.2-3: Governor Terms Amendment.

Governor Terms Amendment
Article V, sections 5 and 6 of the Southern Constitution are amended to read as follows:

5. ...The governor shall appoint a designated successor from among the members of the legislature. Should the office of governor fall vacant at any point during the term, the designated successor shall become governor for the remainder of the term, vacating their position within the legislature. Should the governor fail to appoint a designated successor, the longest continually-serving available member of the legislature, shall immediately become the governor and serve for the remainder of the term, vacating their position within the legislature. ...

Section V.7 shall be redesignated V.6 and all subsequent sections shall be renumbered accordingly.

[OBD]

While I can’t sign this, I agree with the argument of the ex-President regarding Southern inactivity.

[tmthforu94]

Check out this thread for another example of lazy legislating: Humane Treatment of Shelter Animals Act

What's the matter with this Chamber? Hopefully someone objects to a final vote so this can be resolved before voting begins. The People are tired of being left in the dark on what the Chamber is doing.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I petition my good friend YoungTexan to step it up as Speaker and seek to better his job performance.  I think the Southern Chamber can do a better job and I commend Spark for his hard work in this regard. I hope the CoD (both the Lab and Fed members) heeds the governor's wise advice on this front.
xTimTurner

[fhtagn]

I'm not going to commend Spark like some others are, as we are now on the 2nd bill he tried to help kill because he didn't want to deal with amendments.

This is unacceptable.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Something I've noticed is that Speaker YT has not added (Debating) and other stuff to the thread titles.  That's kind of important - the thread title should mention the status of the bill. If anyone of y'all cross paths with YT make sure to inform of this please.
To Spark's credit, he readily edited the titles to reflect this when I mentioned it to him.

[S019]

Also another note, the Chamber is currently prioritizing passing some meme bill condemning me over the actually serious euthanasia bill.

[tmthforu94]

Also another note, the Chamber is currently prioritizing passing some meme bill condemning me over the actually serious euthanasia bill.

FWIW the portion concerning you was struck out, I believe. I don't disagree that the priorities seem jumbled, though.

[S019]

Also another note, the Chamber is currently prioritizing passing some meme bill condemning me over the actually serious euthanasia bill.

FWIW the portion concerning you was struck out, I believe. I don't disagree that the priorities seem jumbled, though.

Yeah, the part explicitly condemning me, but the Lincoln investigation provision was left in, and there is clearly not a majority in the Council to implement Prohibition in Lincoln, so, it seems a bit meaningless. Also it's unclear how they would collect the drunk-driving tax.

[Lumine]

Check out this thread for another example of lazy legislating: Humane Treatment of Shelter Animals Act

What's the matter with this Chamber? Hopefully someone objects to a final vote so this can be resolved before voting begins. The People are tired of being left in the dark on what the Chamber is doing.

On the subject of this bill, I'd like to encourage people to reach out (PM, Discord, my office, etc.) when they have a Game Engine related question, otherwise I could well miss - as I did in this case - a request which was only mentioned on the specific debate thread. That way I can both be made aware and deliver a request much faster.

[PSOL]

While I can’t sign this, I agree with the argument of the ex-President regarding Southern inactivity.

[Spark]

I'm not going to commend Spark like some others are, as we are now on the 2nd bill he tried to help kill because he didn't want to deal with amendments.

This is unacceptable.

I have no problems with amendments but I can understand your frustration with how things are proceeding in the South. I pledge to keep things moving.

[fhtagn]

I'm not going to commend Spark like some others are, as we are now on the 2nd bill he tried to help kill because he didn't want to deal with amendments.

This is unacceptable.

I have no problems with amendments but I can understand your frustration with how things are proceeding in the South. I pledge to keep things moving.

You literally just ignored the point of my post.

[Sestak]

I'm not going to commend Spark like some others are, as we are now on the 2nd bill he tried to help kill because he didn't want to deal with amendments.

This is unacceptable.

For all the flack the south gives S019 at least he, you know, actually knows how to do his job as speaker

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Check out this thread for another example of lazy legislating: Humane Treatment of Shelter Animals Act

What's the matter with this Chamber? Hopefully someone objects to a final vote so this can be resolved before voting begins. The People are tired of being left in the dark on what the Chamber is doing.

On the subject of this bill, I'd like to encourage people to reach out (PM, Discord, my office, etc.) when they have a Game Engine related question, otherwise I could well miss - as I did in this case - a request which was only mentioned on the specific debate thread. That way I can both be made aware and deliver a request much faster.

It was my understanding that they were PMing Clyde for any sort of numbers-related estimates.

[Lumine]

Check out this thread for another example of lazy legislating: Humane Treatment of Shelter Animals Act

What's the matter with this Chamber? Hopefully someone objects to a final vote so this can be resolved before voting begins. The People are tired of being left in the dark on what the Chamber is doing.

On the subject of this bill, I'd like to encourage people to reach out (PM, Discord, my office, etc.) when they have a Game Engine related question, otherwise I could well miss - as I did in this case - a request which was only mentioned on the specific debate thread. That way I can both be made aware and deliver a request much faster.

It was my understanding that they were PMing Clyde for any sort of numbers-related estimates.

Oh. I can see the reasoning, but if I understand it correctly (in terms of the Game Engine Reconstruction Act) that would not fall under the purview of the Comptroller General, as he is empowered only in terms of cost of legislation, revenue, unemployment numbers, economic statistics, and the state of the national/global economy (at least from my point of view, such numbers aren't economy-related).

Plus the Comptroller General is sadly still AWOL.