| [IC] The Ryccian Senate |
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The Senate of the Empire, Part One: Taxation of Trade Routes
“The Speaker recognizes the Senator from the System of Krux” Kayala Turinna was the Senator of Krux, a system with one livable planet, Krux, and dozens of ship cities. Krux was a highly industrialized planet, relying on food and fuel imports to sustain itself. Her system’s planet was experiencing economic hardship and rising prices on imports as a result of high trade route taxes, in which you paid a fee to trade legally in a trade route. This in theory funded security to maintain said routes secure, but there were rumours that trade route customs officers were enriching themselves, prompting a criminal investigation. As a result of the inquires, the popularity of the TRX (Trade Route Tax) declined, as the public began to see them as harbours for corruption. Kayala was going to use this opportunity to lower the TRX, and get some approval at the Senate elections next year, of course. Besides, with the trade routes stripped of security cash from the tax, Kayala’s family, who owned a private security company, could aid to secure the routes. And they and a wide, connected network of secretly co-operating private security companies (which are increasingly getting more in touch with criminal gangs in trade routes btw) could deny safety in trade routes in which rival systems of where various Senators that opposed Kayala and her allies are from. Can you say corruption? “Thank you, Mr. Speaker” said Kayala, now turning her floating seat at the centre of the Senate floor “Senators, we have heard of the recent corruption cases relating to trade route tax customs officials. The entire nation has heard of them, about the authorities at TRX stations pocketing taxes in their pockets” “We cannot allow these corrupt officers to enrich themselves at the cost of the people. We must reduce their sources of dark wealth. We must cut the TRX fee to trade in the Imperial Trade Routes” “I also know of systems that face hardship, due to the high fees making imports expensive. One such system is Krux, the system I represent. Food and fuel prices are soaring gradually but surely since this Senate approved of a tax hike three years ago. Krux is an industrial planet, producing manufactured goods for our country. We cannot allow essential industrial powerhouses to starve in the long-term” “We must cut the TRX fee. To get rid of dark wealth, and to alleviate planets like Krux. It is a logical solution” So, hi! This is the Ryccian Senate, where individual systems send their Senators. If you want, you can take a system name here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n8ch...p=drivesdk , or invent one. Notify me if you create a new system, and be sure to describe their industries. Ship city-only systems are okay, but systems with livable planets will have to be personally approved by me.
Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)
Local Council Member(April 24-August 11) Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7)
Senator Rihard Edlerc, a Vonmisian born and raised on one of the older city ships, made sure to be the one to be allowed to speak next by pushing the request button furiously. Receiving the permission, she folded back one of her long thin ears that had been left hanging untidily in front of her face after her battle with the computer system. The floating seat, today carrying the delegation from the Vonmisian System soon made its way to the centre of the great hall.
She took a moment to settle. She seemed to sparkle as the bright light hit her blue skin. Her species was renowned for its fair looks, but their temperament was infamous. She spoke up. "Let me be brief. The Trade Route Tax has failed, the security has failed, and this Senate will fail if it allows it to continue!" She breathed in and continued. "It must be terminated immediately and the entire route customs organisation must be replaced by a fresh one that is to be more strictly supervised than the old one."
Kayala was astonished. Sure, she had thought this proposal would've come up, but she did not expect it to be so soon. Her surprise turned to anger, boiling inside her, as the Senate roared in approval to her new-found adversary. She was not letting this alien trashbag stand in her family's way of economic domination (Ryccia is not very xenophobic, but a minority is. Even in non-racist individuals, they internally insult the other species the being that angered them is from, usually calling them in their mind "alien/human trashbag").
Her anger manifested in her breaking a pencil in her fist, and she threw it away at the floor in a quiet fashion. "Your Excellency, are you okay?" said an aide. "Yes" the Senator said, furious "Yes I am..." She calmed herself, and went to the floor, ready to hit back at this scum. She tried to frame Rihard of wanting to fire every officer in the organization, and of being a radical who wanted to destroy the network in one blow (being a radical was unpopular in the Senate). "Are you serious? Disbanding our customs network to establish a new one? Not only is this unnecessary, it punishes the officers who are innocent!" "Guilt by association is never the solution. We must take a massive corruption inquiry into our customs body, not fire everyone en masse. As such, we must cut the TRX fee to help reduce the impact of corruption, not eliminate our bureaucracy in one blow. This radical act does not need to happen. We need an organized and efficient matter to re-establish the sanctity of our trade route network"
Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)
Local Council Member(April 24-August 11) Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7)
Edlerc gave Kayala a cold glare and addressed her directly.
"With this level of corruption, from the common customs officer all the way up to the Central Office, there cannot be single person that isn't aware of what's going on. And what have they done about it? Nothing. Nothing! No one is innocent." Edlerc let the upset buzz her words caused in the senate fade and had the floating seat turn to face the assembly. "What would an inquiry accomplish? It would be running for years. Would it stop the corruption now? What would the Empire be without safe trading? Let us seize the opportunity to build something new that actually works."
That had not worked. The Senate still clapped vigorously for Edlerc's proposal. She would try another tactic then. Indirectly infer that she is too stupid to comprehend the vast expanse of the network.
"Our current trade route network has thousands, if not millions of offices and remote sentries to not only take the fees, but to protect the trade routes. Senators, to destroy that vast network enveloping thousands of star systems is far worse than a corruption investigation" "Do you know how long it took to construct our customs network? Millions of Imperial Units and years of planning and construction! An inquiry takes years, but so does building a new interstellar trade route security network across our Empire" "The customs network employs millions of personnel. Millions booted out of a job, just because this Senate cannot comprehend how massive is this security structure. It cannot tell the difference between a planetary agency and an interstellar super-body! And many of them are innocent, or coerced into not telling anything. The investigation committee has estimated that only about ~2-10% of the body is corrupt to a degree. Senators, is it fair to cause one of the largest layoffs in Ryccian history, or to investigate the network?"
Deputy Regional Minister of the Planning and Development Agency(March 8-May 19, 2014)
Local Council Member(April 24-August 11) Court Justice of TSP(August 15-December 7) |
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