[Congress] Proposed change monetary policies law
Day 4,164, 00:56
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Published in Netherlands 
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by
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by UNL Congress
Greetings, citizens of Netherlands,
All non private debates will be done here in this newspaper. You can use the comments to join.
Topic: Proposed change monetary policies law
Requester: ElGorro
Text:
As the government isn't following the Monetary Policies Law by the letter and people seem to agree, I believe it's time to simplify that Lawbook, so the government isn't breaking the Law anymore by using tricks like using unused budget of the previous term (see article 2.6) in the budget of the next month (see Article 2.1). And moving loads of cash from the budget to the MoD org, where it can be 'used out of the budget'.
Current Lawbook:
Article 2 – Monetary Policies
1. The budget of the Government of the eNetherlands cannot exceed the tax income of the previous month. An additional budget can be awarded by congressional approval.
2. The Gold expenditures are not regulated. The Government is responsible and accountable for the way the Gold reserves are spent.
3. The organization ‘Ministerie van Economische Zak’ (EZ) serves as the current account of the eNetherlands.
4. The organization ‘DNB’ serves as the Emergency Fund consisting of at least 1000 Gold and 1,000,000 NLG, which can only be used with congressional approval.
5. In case the Emergency Fund does not meet its requires required threshold the Government must allocate at least 25% of its regular budget to the Emergency Fund.
6. Unused budget at the end of the term will be transferred to the Emergency Fund unless another expenditure is designated.
7. Citizens can review the current state of financial affairs at all times in the official Finance Sheet, managed by the Ministry of Finance.
Proposed Lawbook:
Article 2 – Monetary Policies
1. The expenditures are not regulated. The Government is responsible and accountable for the way the budget and reserves are spent.
2. The organization ‘Ministerie van Economische Zak’ (EZ) serves as the current account of the eNetherlands.
3. The organization ‘DNB’ serves as the Emergency Fund consisting of at least 1000 Gold and 1,000,000 NLG, which can only be used with congressional approval.
4. In case the Emergency Fund does not meet its requires required threshold the Government must allocate at least 25% of its regular budget to the Emergency Fund.
5. Citizens can review the current state of financial affairs at all times in the official Finance Sheet, managed by the Ministry of Finance.
MaartenW and Mael Dunbar
CoC Team
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Comments
" The expenditures are not regulated. "
... that is a dangerous monetary policy, as that would mean government could spend our entire treasury in a month. I believe that should not be allowed. All the "unregulated" parts should me removed, and not expanded upon.
Good on removing article 6 though, I was already proposing that in the past, so I am happy other people share the opinion that the article is not helpful.
I agree, but I also agree the unregulated 'reserves' on others organizations has gone out of hand. Let's work on that!
Then idd we must find a way to legalize the money stored in the MoD org.
Not sure, how to legalize legitimate money
Technically the money there is there from old unspend budget. Also if spend the government is spending more money than in the budget that cannot exceed the tax income of the previous month.
Well... yes, and no. But I understand your point of view.
Personally, I lean towards the idea of each Ministry having "budget ceilign" (as stated earlier). You would take regular expense of the ministry, multiplied it by... let's say three... and that would be the maximum amount of money the mnistry org could have on its account. With the exception of EZ, as that is, per Law, the current account of Netherlands.
Unless the money on MoD was put there with money above the official budget I don't think it's illegal. It is spend on MoD, however MoD has not used it all which is not harmfull. It can act as a reserve for the moment MoD needs the money swiftly which, at least in the past, was vertually impossible in eNL due to having to go through all kinds of procedures. MoD could also have bought tanks already with the cash just in case they are needed to supply soldiers, yet an org can only store 1k goods so that's not a real option. Apart from the ridiculously high prices of tanks the last couple of months.
I don't know if similar things have been done with other orgs that are used to support players (housing project or air support program). I can imagine something like that happens as well atm due to the relatively high budgets compared to a few months ago. The moment that drops again we will have issues to maintain program's.
Storing cash in several places has it's downsides as well however and should not be done with the exception of MoD that needs to have the option to act swiftly.
Removing regulation ain't the solution imo and is way to dangerous. I'd be in favour of regulating budget rather differently than we are used to given the high amount of (temporary) extra income.
I'll put an example in a reaction below.
terrible proposal.
with this you are basically asking for gov to bankrupt us.
the spending budget to increase the budget of the month after should just be put a stop to. make it explicit that it isn't allowed to happen and done.
It has been stopped for a while now. Keep up to date 😛
so? just because it doesn't happen for a short time doesn't mean it couldn't happen again. making it explicitly impossible is what was the point.
also for a while normally means more time than just last term and this term.
As long as surplus money is not being stashed away from any use or our citizens I agree!
Which can be always prevented by lowering taxes = lowering the amount of money, which are being stashed 😇
Stop with the lowering taxes. 3% is nothing and no one benefits exept for the Sellers. If it had any longterm effect on sales price then maybe.
Why should I stop, am I not allowed to express my opinion? Why it is bad for Producers (not Sellers, Producers... those are two different groups, one larger than other) to benefit? Majority of small countries has low taxes (= 3% is A LOT) - it's better than stashing money without purpose. Of course, our governments are active, and we return the money back via programs, so bigger taxes can be justified. But if we find out we stash too much money on monthly basis... or we will elect inactive government, which will only stash money and do nothing with it (like governments did in the past)... we should be open to explore other in-game options 😉 .
How about adding something like this. Its just a first draft.
The organization 'MoD org' serves as spending money for the Army and consisting of at most xxx Gold and xxx NLG. If there is more than these amounts, the surplus will be transfered to the country reserve.
or: all orgs used by government during the term are to be emptied by the keykeeper before a new government is installed and given access.
that way gov has the budget they can work with on a monthly basis and there is no opportunity to go over budget unless specifically requesting permission from congress.
One of the worst ideas ever...
mm orgs are of course exempt from that measure.
a case could be made for the MoD org to have a minimum amount on it. but that it always needs to filled back up to that number by the end of a term from the budget (unless EF fund is opened).
don't see any reason for other ministry orgs having loads of cash on them. it's not like a program like the newspaper article one needs to have 100k at the ready at all times.
If we exclude MoD and MM orgs I think we can largely agree if we have something like my example below in place. I'm not directly in favour of maxing MoD "treasure".
[removed]
As eRep messed up the message I deleted it and post it a bit different below…
For regulating budget differently like I mentioned above an example could be something like this:
Income of eNL exists of 2 components being:
(1) regular income being the amount of tax income
(2) extra income being the amount of income from other sources like concession deals, MM results, donations etc.
Extra income (2) can be used to increase budget up to a maximum amount and is used to fill the equalization fund.
Budget of gov consist of:
The value of (1) from the previous month. Budget can be increased with up to 50% provide (2) generated enough to do so the previous month and/or from using part of the equalization fund.
Two examples of how does this works:
Example 1:
In a given month income (1) was 100k, and the income from (2) was 150k.
Next month’s Gov wants the maximum budget and therefore the budget would be 100k + 50% = 150k. The extra 100k that was generated by (2) will be put in the equalization fund for future gov's use.
Example 2:
In a given month income (1) was 100k, and the income from (2) was 10k.
Next month’s Gov wants the maximum budget and therefore the budget would be 100k + 50% = 150k. The extra 50k can be added using 10k from (2) plus 40k from the equalization fund, provided the fund has the cash.
By doing so we, as the name of the fund states, equalize the spikes in budget and prevent programs to be quit immediately should a month generate less income due to an ended concession deal or MM not being profitable etc. This way there is no, or at least way less need for storing budget in other orgs. Apart from MoD as MoD needs to be able to act very swiftly without having to wait for congress and such.
Apart from that I'd say the Emergency fund needs to be increased as 1kk cc and 1k gold is not by far enough nowadays. Lots of players possess larger amounts...
with those kind of measures govs of the last 6 months would have had between 100k and 250k less in their budgets. probably necessitating cuts in programs.
agreed on the EF needing to be higher. thanks to a certain former MoF it is twice the required amount at least.
AFAIK those budgets were not used to the full were they? So there likely would have been less leftover budget and more in future months when income drops again.
I know the EF effectively is higher which indeed is good. It should IMO however also be officially debated and a new amount decided upon. With this large incomes now is the time to make that happen quickly...
When I wanted to legally increase the minimal amount in Emergency Fund, you two voted against it. So can I expect yoru support now? I agree that the minimal amount there should be increased (in the end, I was responsible for previous increase in the Law from 200k cc to 1 million cc 😉 )
can't find that debate, probably not properly saved. so can't check why i voted against.
So, people are not in favor of my proposal, but giving no option for an improved proposal. If people want to keep the Law as is, can we focus on making the government to follow the Law again. I cant live with an org with loads of money, with no administration, that a random MoD can spend. All at once, without any approval of anyone.
For me I don't care on what org its stored. The Law clearly states the amount of budget for that term. Using 500 gold and 1 mil cc (not sure on the current amount) is illegal in my opinion without approval of Congress.
suggestions have been made by both weekstrom and myself in this debate.
perhaps those ideas can be combined somehow.