Union Budget

[ Union Rules ]

This page describes the rules with regard to the Union budget when PCs are ministers or the chancellor. While some of these things could be defined IC with a Law, they are currently a Rule for simplicity.

These rules were discussed in Turn 80 Election note and Union-wide projects unfeasable?.

The Union's budget is related to the amount of taxes paid to the Union. These taxes are divided into three seperate streams of money:

Regular budget is allocated for Regular expenses. Regular expenses are those expenses that cannot be avoided and that are the same every turn. These include salaries, hyperspace route maintenance, government charity, interest payments on loans, depreciation of assets, electricity, transportation, etc. In general you can't touch the regular expenses.

Game-wise, regular expenses are money that is siphoned out of the economy and to limit the power of the Ministers and Chancellor to more manageable levels.

Regular Budget can not be changed.

Operational Budget is allocated for Operational Expenses. Operational Expenses are expenses generated by laws. They include such things as subsidies, tax breaks for technologies and the 'offer of aid' funds. You can modify operational expenses by modifying the law. If you add a subsidy, operational expenses rise if you cut a subsidy, operational expenses drop.

Operational expenses carry over - you inherit the operational expenses of your predecessor and are obligated to continue paying them unless you change the law.

Contengency Budget is “free money” to be spent by the ministers and chancellors on pet projects, to deal with emergencies, etc. Contingency budget is yours to spend and then they're gone. You can use them once and it doesn't affect the next minister or chancellor. If you give the money away to your own faction, there are very strong political consequences.

Contingency Expenses cannot be simply converted to Operational Expenses - you cannot spend the money of your post-decessor.

Not all subsidies are easy to predict. For example, if you put a subsidy on you may expect it to cost X but in reality it may not be very popular and only cost Y. This is called “Bureaucracy” and the funds are lost. By contrast, it may be more popular and cost Z. In that case you'll get to pay for it. This is called “Unfair” and you need to overspend.

If you have a plan, you should make a calculation as to the cost. If it is reasonable, a Storyteller will approve it. If not, they will point to hidden cost or may remove certain cost as not being applicable. They are also responsible for informing you if you go over (but not if you go under) budget. If you hear nothing, all is good.

Before you enthusiastically start ending subsidies, increasing taxes and generally moving money about, do remember such things require a vote.

Cutting operational expenses is easy - if you remove a subsidy, the funds for that subsidy become available once again in the operational expenses budget. That means you can lower taxes by the same amount - likewise, you can spend contingency money to gain operational money which you can then use to lower taxes. See the 1 tax break for an example but apply it to the entire union.

Likewise, increasing tax rates brings in money, which can be used for operational expenses and which can be transferred to contingency funds: this goes at a rate of 1 for 1 .

For example, you could increase the tax rate for bracket 1 by 10% to gain 1000 per turn (50 x 22 members, minus a fraction for additional collection cost and not all members paying bracket 1 in full). You can then increase the contingency budgets of each ministry by 200 (meaning the Chancellor would have 700 and the other ministries 450).

Contingency Funds don't have to be spent in the same way that regular does. You don't have to spend every week and can in fact save up money and spend future money (within your electoral period). Think of it as if your ministerial turn report is due only once per electoral period instead of every turn.

Additionally, it is possible to set up a fund with an express purpose, such as expanding the Bozzy Spine. This is your money, and a postdecessor cannot spend it on anything but what it was earmarked for (but they don't have to - in that case it just sits there catching dust). This does mean multiple electoral periods (either under the same or a different Chancellor) can work together to make huge expenses such as a Bozzy Spine expansion. Thus, even though a single electoral period is not enough to expand the Bozzy Spine over multiple electoral periods, enough money can be saved for this.

It is possible to give donations to the Union, however, such actions result that the bureaucratic Union needs to expand in means to support the expanding bureaucracy. Donations needs to be clearly earmarked in order to make sure they are spend correctly. 20% Of the earmarked donations will actually end up in the fund. The rest disappears in the bureaucracy. Any non-earmarked donation will disappear in its entirety in the bureaucracy.

Because the Union is mostly a bureaucratic instance, it is not very effective in completing projects themselves. Generally, it lacks the facilities and personnel to do research and other kinds of projects. As a result the price is unreasonably expensive and such projects are generally outsourced to one or more of the Union members.