Citizen poll: Proposed budget for 5/26 turn chat, please read 1st post before voting

[donsig]

We have 866 gold in the treasury. The NSD has 100 of this saved leaving 766 to allocate. Our budget surplus over the next ten turns is expected to be around 1200 gold.

I propose we allocate a total of 1160 gold for this turn chat. If we can meet our expected income we will still have about 800 gold to allocate for the next budget. Standard budgetary policy is to allocate only gold that is in the treasury while saving all new income for the next budget. Since we are at war and there have been calls for higher military spending I have departed from this standard for this turn chat. Once the war is over I expect we will return to the old standard.

Proposed appropriations for the 5/26 turn chat:

Military Dept: 636 gold
Cultural Dept: 312 gold
Domestic Dept: 156 gold
NSD: 56 gold (would raise NSD funds to 156 total)

Total appropriations: 1160 gold

Notes:
The military budget would allow for the upgrade of ten pikemen units or a mix of pikemen upgrades with barracks and or wall rushes.
The cultural dept. would be able to rush two libraries.
The domestic dept. could rush a market in Thebes.
The NSD could use the funds to buy tech nology from another country or a library could be rushed.

If this budget is approved by the citizens our department leaders must be aware that all funds will not be available for immediate use! My estimate is that it will take three turns for all funds to be available. Expenditures will have to be staggered accordingly.

This poll will be open for one day so the final results will be available for the turn chat.

Edit: Here's a link to the budget discussion.

 

[Shaitan]

I vote "Other". This budget looks fine to me if we're in war but our major objective is to end the war. I'd like a conditional budget where we could continue the CAP program if we get quick peace with the Aztecs. Specifically, we need a library rush in New CAP City.

 

[donsig]

Originally posted by Shaitan
I vote "Other". This budget looks fine to me if we're in war but our major objective is to end the war. I'd like a conditional budget where we could continue the CAP program if we get quick peace with the Aztecs. Specifically, we need a library rush in New CAP City.

Hey, 'other' wasn't one of the choices!

To answer your concerns Shaitan I would raise two points:

1) We have over 40 pikemen to upgrade and the total cost is over 2400 gold. I think there is an underlying concensus to upgrade these whether we are at war or not. The question then becomes how fast should we be buying muskets. The proposed budget allocates slightly more than half of the total appropriations to the military department but this still only represents one fourth of the cost of the upgrades. At this rate of military spending it will take 40 turns to complete the upgrades and there is no guarantee that we we can maintain this level of military spending.

2) Culture has a proposed allocation of 312 gold which is enought to rush the libraries in 'New CAP City' and Tlaxcala as Justus II requested. Domestic is allocated 156 gold which is also enough to rush a library. The first priority for these funds is a market in Thebes but Bach's make make the market unnecessary there. If so I would gladly use the domestic funds to further CAP. Science also is allocated 156 gold, the cost of rushing a library. Precedent is such that once allocated the department can use the funds as the leader sees fit so Civanator could authorize the NSD funds to be used to rush a project under CAP (assuming the proposed budget passes!) I would encourage the NSD to consider doing so if we can acquire astronomy or other techs from another country without us having to pay gold for it. So it is possible that there will be 624 gold actually available for CAP this turn chat.