It's official - ID4CP. Again!

Day 3,026, 21:15 • Published in Australia Canada • by Ilene Dover




Looks like this time, it's official. Following on from my first article announcing my intent to run again, we've run smack bang into the nomination cutoff.


To cut a long story short, the APP have agreed to sponsor my nomination in light of Lord TJ's sustained absence. Firstly, a big thank you to J Seemore and the APP for their generosity. It's nice to see a community come together once in awhile, even if it is to try and bind my hands and feet at the end of a rifle range...


Some more policy detail follows, since my earlier article was a little light on details.







Finance


Both gudzwabover and J Seemore have agreed to stay on in the Finance Department if I am re-elected. Gudz will nominally be the Minister / Governor, with J Seemore taking over monetary market trading again.


It's reassuring to have a trusted team in Finance. As pointed out in no uncertain terms here by T.A.X.S.I.R.A. we have a revenue problem. As of about 10 days or so back, the Treasury's tax take dropped by $750/day. There are many possible causes, but I consider it has probably been caused by a drop in the average wage. This then causes a decline in the work tax collected from players using Work as Manager.


That's great news for all you capitalists out there, but terrible news for the country. Treasury's monthly revenue is about $70,000 at the moment. To meet our existing MPP obligations, we need $100,000. There is currently a proposal before the senate to raise the Work Tax rate to 4%. This will go some way to covering the deficit (WaM tax per company will still be lower than at the start of February), but is unlikely to cover all of it. I support this proposal on the condition that the work tax rate be returned to 3% if and when our average wage rises again.







Foreign affairs and defence


Depending upon whether the increased work tax proposal is accepted by the senate (or not, as it is 17-11 in favour at the moment), and the size of change to treasury revenue (or not), spending reductions will probably need to be found.


That means that we will be reducing our MPP stack, because that is the vast bulk of normal government expense. Some public discussion around who should be cut and why will be needed, although the current crop of senators seems up to the task.







Alliance issues


In case you'd forgotten, we belong to the Nebula alliance - you're forgiven if you didn't know! I was amazed the other day when I realised that it's been almost a year since we helped found Nebula. How time flies when you're having fun!



In that year we've had some highs, some lows, and a great deal of, well, nothing much in the middle. A year is a long time in this game. It is well worth looking at the geo-political landscape and alliances to be certain we are getting value out of our membership. Questions should be asked, so we don't fall into the trap of staying out of inertia.


Questions like:
- Are we happy with our alliance, and where it is going?
- Could we shakeup the alliance membership? New members can sometimes bring vigour and energy where others have been struggling.


If the answers to the above questions are no, or even wishy-washy maybes, a discussion needs to be had. If we go there, I'd like the discussion to be around where we are in the world scene, where do we want to be and how we can get there.






Good luck to all the candidates on Friday. Whoever you vote for, don't forget to vote!





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