The Budget

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Blakesley
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The Budget

Post by Blakesley »

The Budget, Spending Money, and Seeing Results

The Budget Pack

The Budget Pack will be designed by the Treasury admin and released to the Chancellor 14 days prior to the budget due date. The Budget Pack will be released to the public 2 days (48 hours) later. The Budget Pack, when released, will have very specific rules regarding what you can edit. Namely, only numbers in blue squares will be eligible for editing. If you want to edit anything else (including code), you need explicit permission from the A-Team.

The Chancellor is responsible for providing the Treasury admin with a copy of the Budget before it is introduced. The Shadow Chancellor is responsible for providing the Treasury admin with a copy of the Shadow Budget before it is presented. These should be provided in the form of a Sheets spreadsheet. The Treasury admin will then make a copy or request access to view the edit history. This is done to prevent alterations, accidental or otherwise, after the documents are released.

The Budget Debate

Please see Parliamentary Business for a discussion of the mechanisms of the Budget Debate.

The Public Debate

The Budget is a significant event in PolUK. Therefore, the following events should be expected to occur during budget month:
  • Press conferences. The Chancellor, Shadow Chancellor, and the leaders of minor parties (presenting a Shadow Budget) are entitled to a press conference to publicise their budget.
  • Interviews. The A-Team will run interviews and live events for interested parties during the budget.
  • The Chancellor's Debate. The Chancellor, Shadow Chancellor, and the leaders of minor parties that presented a Shadow Budget will be invited to a live debate. Unless there are genuine time constraints, not partaking will be akin to being empty chaired and the polling will show that.
In terms of timing, it is important to note that Shadow Budgets are due no more than 48 hours after the presentation of the budget. Shadow Budgets should be released as a speech. The press conferences will follow at least 24 hours later (to give the A-Team time to formulate questions).

The Spring Statement

The Spring Statement is, essentially, a second spending round where the Chancellor may announce changes to spending levels and is expected to make a statement on the latest economic figures and forecasts. At this time, the Chancellor may not change revenue figures in the Spring Statement, as that would require legislation. The details of the Spring Statement debate are provided in Parliamentary Business.

The Spring Statement will consist of an updated Budget Pack for the fiscal year being presented to the Chancellor. The Chancellor will have one week or two TIme Tables to prepare their Spring Statement. The updated Budget Pack will not be provided to the public. The day before the Spring Statement is due (ie, when the Spring Statement is announced in the Time Table), the BBC will public the economic forecast and how it has changed from the Autumn Budget. It is not expected that any parties will release a Shadow Spring Statement.

The Spending Review

There is a mechanism for a Spending Review. The Spending Review charts out spending plans (broadly) for the next three years, based on tax and growth projections from the Treasury. The Spending Review will not be required. However, the public are keen to see deficit reduction; therefore, it may be in one's interest to present a Spending Review. The Spending Review can be presented by the Chancellor as part of a Spring Statement or as a separate ministerial statement.

Spending Money

Within the Budget, there will be a "Contingency Fund". This represents money that is immediately available for spending by the Chancellor, particularly in response to emergency situations. Spending money outside of the Contingency Fund that was not appropriated in the Budget must be appropriated during the Spring Statement (or it will not be spent until the Budget in the autumn - and you will not see results for things until after the money is appropriated, if it costs money). In summary:
  • Money must be appropriated to be spent. This can occur at two times: the Budget and the Spring Statement. Exceptions will be granted in response to scenarios.
  • If money needs to be spent immediately (say, in response to a scenario), the Chancellor can tap into a Contingency Fund, already appropriated from the Consolidated Fund.
  • All announced programmes must be funded in the Spring Statement or the Autumn Budget. If they are not, no money will be spent and no results will be seen. There might even be an angry news article.
Big Ticket Items: trains and time dilation.

There are certain big ticket items which, in real life, are procured or constructed over several years. We recognise that these rounds don't often last that long. Therefore, we will be introducing a time dilation mechanism to hopefully allow you to see the results of your actions: particularly when you invest in long term items. There will be a tradeoff, to be negotiated between (Shadow) Chancellors and the Treasury admin, that allows a timescale to be compressed in return for increased price. Participation in this will be non-negotiable for projects scheduled to take over five years to complete.

There will be a separate tab in the Budget Pack where all projects funded under this mechanism will be identified. It will include the project, the total cost, the annual cost, and the time expected until completion, as well as where in the Budget funding is allocated. This mechanism will be made available to all parties. For these items, so that we don't break the budget pack, the total cost will likely come in noticeably under the real life cost. This is something we will handwave away. The Government cannot claim they are suddenly getting better value for money. The Opposition can't attack the Government for underfunding things (note: the Opposition, as always, can say that Government spending priorities are misplaced).
Blakesley
Treasury | Labour
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