Ün proxhet [legeu] per clarificar l'aðmistraziun financial - The Better Know Your Finances Bill [Act].WHEREAS a debate emerged on the importance on release financial data also before the elections;
WHEREAS it is convenient to put order in the financial and economic sections of el Lexhatx creating a new Title;
WHEREAS it seems reasonable to de jure transfer the Royal Bank & Post from the Ministry of Finance to the Royal Treasury, but still under the direction of the Ministry, because of the functions of the Chairman more akin to a Civil Servant and the importance of storing coins, stamps, etc... with a more permanent officer rather than an elected official;
BE IT ENACTED by Regeu, Cosă and Senäts that
<---Read it here together because it exceeds the maximum allowed lenght. (https://wiki.talossa.com/User:Ugot/proposal#Proposal)--->
<---PART 1--->
1. Lexh.C.1.5 which now reads1.5. The Royal Treasury, headed by the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue. The function of the treasury is to:
1.5.1. collect all revenues due to the King,
1.5.2. maintain and report to the Finance Minister and the Government on the fiduciary health of the Kingdom, at least once in every two calendar months and whenever else requested
1.5.3. disburse from the treasury all funds legitimately appropriated by the Ziu,
1.5.4. keep a record of all changes in the account balances of the Royal Treasury.
1.5.5. audit the reported financial condition of His Majesty's investments at any time.
1.5.6. provide, upon request of the Minister of Finance and any other time stated in law, a Financial Report containing the following information:
1.5.6.1. the amount, location, liquidity, and availability of all funds held by or for the Royal Treasury,
1.5.6.2. a detailed list of all changes in the account balances of the Royal Treasury since the last Report,
1.5.6.3. a balance sheet which clearly lists all expenses linking them to the relative sheet items in the budget bills approved in the Cosa,
1.5.6.4. the total amount of louise and postal items in circulation;
1.5.7. All accounts and other monies held by the Royal Treasury shall be held in the name of both the King and the Burgermeister, in such a way that the King shall be able to perform the functions of the Burgermeister in case of the Burgermeister's absence, on his own initiative or upon request of the Minister of Finance.
shall be amended to read as follows:
Quote1.5. The Fisc Rexhital (in english, the Royal Treasury), headed by the Citanal dels Revenüns Inphätsilor (in english, Burgermeister of Inland Revenue).
1.5.1. The function of the Treasury is to:
1.5.1.1. collect all revenues;
1.5.1.2. maintain and report to the Minister of Finance and the Government on the fiduciary health of the Kingdom, at least once in every two calendar months and whenever else requested;
1.5.1.3. disburse from the Treasury all funds legitimately appropriated in compliance with Title M;
1.5.1.4. keep a record of all changes in the account balances and special funds;
1.5.1.5. audit the reported financial condition of investments at any time;
1.5.1.6. provide at any time stated in M.2.1. Financial Reports and Statements in compliance with M.2.;
1.5.2. The Burgermeister is ex officio the Aðmistreir del Banqeu es Post Rexhital (in english, Chairman of the Royal Bank & Post), unless the Minister of Finance appoints a Deputy of the Fisc Rexhital to that position.
2. Lexh.D.2.6.6 which now reads2.6.6 The Bureau for Humanitarian Aid and International Development (The Bureau) shall serve as the hub for the Kingdom of Talossa's support for disaster and poverty relief and other forms of humanitarian assistance, emergency response and the promotion of efforts towards socioeconomic development.
2.6.6.1 The Bureau shall operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Bureau shall be administered by an Administrator to be appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
2.6.6.2 The Bureau shall be funded by contributions from individuals, nonprofit organizations and where deemed appropriate by the Ziu, legislative appropriations.
2.6.6.3 The Administrator shall make every effort to ensure that Bureau's funds are donated to humanitarian organizations in a timely manner, and shall notify the public when outgoing donations are made. This notice shall include at least the amount, date, and beneficiary of the outgoing donation(s).
2.6.6.3.1 Other provisions of el Lexhatx notwithstanding, outgoing donations made with money contributed by private parties shall not require the approval of the Ziu.
shall be amended to read as follows:
Quote2.6.6. The Bureau for Humanitarian Aid and International Development (The Bureau) shall serve as the hub for the Kingdom of Talossa's support for disaster and poverty relief and other forms of humanitarian assistance, emergency response and the promotion of efforts towards socioeconomic development. It shall operate under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and be administered by an Administrator to be appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
2.6.6.1. The Bureau shall administer the "BHAID Fund" as provided in M.9.3.
3. Lexh D.2.8 which now reads2.8. The Finance Minister, heading the Ministry of Finance.
2.8.1 The Ministrà dal Finançù (Ministry of Finance) is responsible for setting and implementing the economic policies of the Kingdom, for drawing up the national Budget, and directing the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue as to the investment of that portion of the Royal Treasury set aside by said Budget.
2.8.2. The Finance Minister also serves as the Chairman of the Banqeu es Post Rexhital (Royal Bank & Post) unless he gets too lazy and appoints a Chairman. The Royal Bank and Post is responsible for issuing and regulating the currency and postal paraphernalia of the Kingdom.
2.8.2.1. Base Unit of Account. The base unit of account for the Kingdom of Talossa is hereby established and styled the "BENT." The plural of the bent is "BENCE." Convenient shortenings such as "tubbence" and "thrubbence" shall be understood and recognised by the government, and may appear on collectable tokens (colloquially "coinage", though they shall not constitute current money). This unit of account is fixed to $0.025 in the currency of the United States of America.
2.8.2.2. Second Unit of Account. A second unit of account, which shall have the fixed denomination of sixty (60) bence, is hereby established and styled the "LOUIS," which shall also be officially recognised by the shortened name "LOU." The plural of the lou is "LOUISE." Convenient colloqualisms for the denominations of louise are encouraged, specifically "Brock" for a single lou, "Costello" for five louise, "Ferrigno" for ten louise, "Rawls" for twenty louise, and so forth.
2.8.2.2.1. The commonly-used symbols ℓ and ¤ shall be officially adopted for the louis and bent, respectively, and these symbols shall be used in accordance with common practice: ¤ to be used as a separator of the two denominations, with louise on the left of the symbol and bence on the right; ℓ may also be used to indicate amounts in whole louise, by placing the symbol to the left of the amount.
2.8.2.3. Creation and Issuance of Collectable Tokens. The Royal Bank & Post is exclusively authorised to design, cause to be created, issue, and distribute collectable tokens (colloquially "coinage", though they shall not constitute current money) in any denomination of whole bence. The Royal Bank & Post is authorised to imprint the denomination of any coinage with its price in louise, rather than in bence, as it sees fit.
2.8.2.3.1 Current Token Design. The first issue of Talossan collectable tokens ("coins") shall have, on the obverse, the Chinese character "ben" upon a shield, with a crown above the shield; above the crown shall be the curved inscription "REGIPÄTS TALOSSÁN", and below the shield shall be the curved inscription of the year of issue (both the Common Era in Arabic numerals and the year of the Kingdom of Talossa in Roman numerals). On the reverse shall be an image to be determined by the Royal Bank and Post representative of some aspect of Talossan culture, a large "ℓ" with an amount representing the coin denomination being minted, and an inscription of the denomination of the coin in the Talossan language.
2.8.2.4 Creation and Sale of Postal Paraphernalia. The Royal Bank & Post may design, create, issue, and sell postage items, such as stamps and imprinted envelopes, in any denomination, and sell the same at a cost exceeding that expended for their creation. Postal items may be purchased by private individuals or organizations (such as those established to provide postal delivery services) and may be re-sold to the public in exchange for postal delivery or other services. The Royal Bank & Post is empowered to print denominations on postal items which are above the original sale value of postal items charged to a private organization purchasing the same, so to ease any resale of these items by the private organization to the general public, by providing on the face of the item the intended retail purchase price.
2.8.2.5. Redemption of Postal Items Forbidden. Postal items may never be redeemed to the Royal Bank & Post for their face value or any other value.
2.8.2.6 Creation and Sale of Commemorative Items. The Royal Bank & Post shall design, create, issue, and sell any commemorative items of the Kingdom of Talossa. Such items may be purchased by the general public at a cost at or above that expended for their manufacture, such valuation to be determined by the Royal Bank & Post.
2.8.2.7 Disposition of Profit. All profit in the form of foreign currency which is realized from the sale of currency, postal items, and commemoratives or by donations from citizens shall be duly tendered by the Royal Bank & Post to the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue for deposit and safe-keeping within the Royal Treasury.
2.8.2.8
2.8.2.9
2.8.2.10
2.8.2.11 Banking Operations. The Royal Bank & Post is empowered to act as a banking facility to serve citizens of the Kingdom of Talossa. The deposit and lending policies of the Bank shall be freely established by the Royal Bank & Post but may be modified by law by action of the Ziu. The safety of all funds deposited with the Royal Bank & Post shall be guaranteed by the government.
2.8.3. The Minister of Finance (or, if the Minister of Finance is not a Member of the Cosa, an MC designated by the Minister of Finance) shall be required to submit to the Ziu, in time for consideration by the second Clark of the Cosa, a government bill approved by the whole Cabinet, to be entitled the Budget and Financial Planning Bill for the (X)th Cosa, which shall contain the following:
2.8.3.1. a Financial Report as provided in El Lexhatx C.1.5.6;
2.8.3.2. a detailed Budget of the Kingdom of Talossa, listing all planned expenses of the State through the current Cosa, specifying the amounts to be requisitioned for each Cabinet Ministry or Officer of the Royal Household and the purpose of each such expense, sufficient to provide for all expenses of the Kingdom of Talossa until the next budget shall be presented, during the subsequent Cosa;
2.8.3.3. any amount of the Treasury to be set aside for investment, and the investment policy that will be pursued;
2.8.3.4. the total amount in louise of any planned currency minting and printing, and postage issuance to be executed by the Royal Bank & Post during the term of the current Cosa;
2.8.3.5. the total amount in louise of any planned donations proposed to be requested from Talossan citizens towards the upkeep of the State. Neither this nor any other section of el Lexhatx shall be interpreted in such a way as to require compulsory taxation or mandatory donations of any kind.
2.8.4. The Budget of the Kingdom of Talossa shall always include funds for re-imbursing the Talossan Web Registrant and others for any payments towards domain registration and hosting on talossa.com and other government run websites made during the previous Cosa term that were not re-imbursed during the previous Cosa term, provided that the government or the previous government has been informed about these payments properly and on time.
2.8.4.1 The Ziu hereby authorizes the annual and ongoing expenditure of 60 louis by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue for the specific and sole purpose of paying for the annual domain name registration of talossa.com and for associated webhosting services as selected by the Seneschal or their designated representative. All payments made under direction of this authority should be reported as according to normal procedure by the Burgermeister.
2.8.5 All withdrawals from the Royal Treasury (except as provided for by D.2.8.6, below) must be authorized by action of the Ziu approving the expense for which the withdrawal is made, either in the Budget and Financial Planning Bill required by D.2.8.3 above, or by supplemental budgeting legislation. In accordance with such authorized budgeted expenses, the Government of the day is empowered to requisition such funds from the Royal Treasury (said withdrawal to be performed in fact only by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue or an authorised deputy).
2.8.6. Emergency Spending. During times when any budgeted funds have been exhausted, when no budget has been approved due to rejection by the Ziu, lack of the Financial Report or dissolution of the Cosa without action on a budget; the Prime Minister[252] may issue a Prime Dictate to provide only for emergency spending, but may not act to cause withdrawal of funds from the Royal Treasury to fulfill the terms of any Prime Dictate unless and until the King has explicitly assented to the Prime Dictate.
2.8.7. Spending Authority Removal. At any time before an allocation is disbursed by the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue, members representing at least one-third of the Cosâ by seats may petition the government that such spending shall not be incurred until such issuance shall be ordered by an act of the Ziu. The Burgermeister of Inland Revenue shall be required to grant all such petitions until such time as an act of the Ziu restores the funding.
2.8.8. The Minister of Finance may take such actions as might be necessary to create, manage, and promote a voluntary fundraising campaign to the citizens of Talossa and other interested parties each year. The targeted amount for this campaign shall be the amount given in D.2.8.3.5. Unless otherwise authorized by the Ziu, the fundraising campaign will be concluded in a given term once that targeted amount is reached. Unless otherwise authorized by the Ziu, no more than one fundraising campaign per term will be conducted.
2.8.9. The Minister of Finance shall publish information as to the value of the Talossan louis against other currencies as and when necessary, desired or requested.
2.8.10 The Finance Minister shall create a Register of Talossan Enterprises, available to all Talossan citizens. Any Talossan who produces goods and services, whether commercially or as a hobby, may provide a description, no longer than 100 words, of their enterprise together with their contact details, for the purposes of advertisement and information. An enterprise shall be removed from the register at the request of the registrant; or by a determination by the Finance Minister that the enterprise is no longer active, or not of a character with which the Kingdom of Talossa wishes to be associated. Such determinations shall be subject to judicial review.
shall be amended to read as follows:
Quote2.8. The Ministreu dal Finançù (in english, the Minister of Finance), heading the Ministrà dal Finançù (in english, Ministry of Finance). The Ministrà is responsible for
2.8.1. setting and implementing the financial and economic policies of the Kingdom;
2.8.2. drawing up the Budget and Financial Planning Bill, in compliance with M.3.;
2.8.3. directing the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue as to the investment of that portion of the Fisc Rexhital set aside by the Budget according with M.3.1.3.;
2.8.4. directing the Chairman of the Banqeu es Post Rexhital as to the regulation and issuing of tokens and postal paraphernalia according with M.3.1.5 and the production of commemorative items;
2.8.5. managing voluntary fundraising campaigns, in compliance with M.8.4;
2.8.6. managing the Register of Talossan Enterprises, as provided in M.11.;
2.8.7. publishing information as to the value of the Talossan Units of Account against other currencies as and when necessary, desired or requested.
4. Lexh.H.6 which now reads6. No bill may be published in a Clark unless it has passed the Hopper, as provided in this section.
shall be amended to read as follows:
Quote6. A proposal for Resoluziun del Ziu shall be published in a Clark only if it has passed the Hopper as provided in the following subsections, with the only exception being the "Resolution of approval of the Final Financial Report" sumbitted by the Secretary of State as provided in M.2.3. that shall be considered to pass the Hopper as soon as the Final Financial Report is published in the Hopper in compliance with M.2.4.
<---BILL CONTINUES IN THE FOLLOWING POST--->
Presentation and a debate on M.1.1 with suggestions from the Burgermeister was here (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=2266.15).
EDIT: I removed also the section that allows the RB&P to funtcions as a Bank (now Lexh.D.2.8.2.11), because that section - I'm not sure if it would be possible under US laws without proper language to be a sort of loan and not banking operations - needs details to operate so it is just a "dead" section.
I removed my post so yours will be right after each other. I'll have some suggestions soon!
Quote from: Üc R. Tärfă on April 19, 2023, 09:53:56 AMQuote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on April 17, 2023, 03:47:49 PMI guess I don't get why the Ziu needs to acknowledge it at all? Seems like just deleting 2.3 and 2.4 entirely makes sense to me, since it's just a lot of rigmarole that doesn't accomplish much. Like, what do we think could happen? Is the Ziu going to not pass that resolution?
Usually bodies that approve budgets also have to approve the final statement, however I can happily remove it and decide that we don't.
I don't see the point, personally, in having this provision.
Quote from: Üc R. Tärfă on April 19, 2023, 09:53:56 AMQuoteIf there is any big change, it will be because of expenditures that will be otherwise noticed.
Just one example: Registration fees. (And other potential revenues).
Our other revenues are few and far between, and fees are usually fairly predictable ($80 or so in total). Estimated revenues seem like they would fit the bill just fine if we include them in the final report.
Quote from: Üc R. Tärfă on April 19, 2023, 09:53:56 AMQuoteJust have the Burgermeister report out on the last day of the term. Saves everyone time and hassle.
We already discussed about it, and that was the compromise :D
Then let's label them appropriately as the final report and a supplemental report, to reflect their most important purpose, right? And please eliminate also the nearly month-long wiggle room. Give a solid deadline on the appropriate days.
I don't quite get M.2.2.1 and M.9... so there's a general fund with a specific location? Does that include checking and savings and a CD, so thereby multiple locations, or are each of those a separate "fund?" And within this fund smaller funds can be created for specific purposes, and we're adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to administer those funds, and "administering" means different things sometimes (since it sometimes means to keep track of and disburse, and other times means to direct the Treasury to disburse? This all seems very confusing. Can you explain this in detail?
Also, M.4 doesn't account for M.3.2 (unless that section is just redundant with M.5).
What is the purpose of M.5.3?
Will you be fixing M.1.1 and H.6?
Still a lot to go here, sorry -- this is a very long and complex bill.
What's the purpose of M.8, generally? Why are we classifying by law the things we think are legal revenue streams?
Why are we keeping the fundraising limit generally? It seems if we're making wholesale changes here that we could simplify a bit by getting rid of the whole "fundraising campaign" idea and just saying that the Government is allowed to fundraise as it sees fit.
I will certainly not be voting to authorize M.13 in its current form. No one has ever used this service, not once in these past years. It is a failure and we shouldn't carry it forward through inertia. I'd suggest instead the following, which will require equal effort but might conceivably be useful to someone:
The Finance Minister will make available a system for the public registration of articles of incorporation. They or their designated representative will ensure that these articles are available for public perusal.
Am I missing it, or does this bill not have the two-week disbursement notices?