Land Sales Reclamation Act 2008 [draft]

[Jamie Palisades]

1. Citizens of CDS are expected to pay tier rentals to the CDS Treasurer in a timely fashion. The Treasurer may set (by posting to the CDS Forums) reasonable monthly notification and due date schedules.

2. The CDS Executive Branch shall provide for notice (which may be by IM or notecard) to each land owner when they have failed to pay tier rental by the established due date.

3. Five calendar days after the due date, a landowner who has failed timely to pay rental tier becomes a 'provisional citizen', and shall not have the right to vote or hold office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full. The citizen shall receive a notice (by IM or notecard) advising her or him of this risk and imminent change is status, and noting the deadline for final payment pursuant to this Act.

4. CDS has the right to make public the lists of provisional citizens from time to time, as reasonably needed for its administration of government.

5. One calendar month after the due date, if the landowner has continued to fail to pay the full amouint then overdue to CDS, then CDS shall send another notice to the landowner warning of imminent reclaimation (loss of the land). Fourteen days after that 1-month notice is sent, The CDS Executive Branch shall re-take ownership of the land, and the owner shall be removed from 'provisional citizen' status. The CDS Executive Branch may then dispose of the land by re-sale or otherwise in such manner as is consistent with our laws, and the landowner will lose any further interest in the parcel. All objects on the parcel at the time of reclaimation shall be returned, and a notice of the reclaimation sent to the landowner.

[provision for quicker reclamation of commercial space intentionally omitted in this draft]

6. [If a landowner who has failed to pay rental tier owns more than one CDS property, and reaches the one-month notice above, all of that owner's properties are subject to the reclaimation rules specified above.]

7. The CDS Executive Branch is encourged to take reasonable additional steps to notify citizens of past due amounts and all other matters described in this Act, but timely rent payment primarily is the citizen's responsibility to monitor.

8. This law repeals any provisions of prior CDS laws (including NL 7-6 [http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=208]) that specify land reclaimation or rent payment methods, to the extent that they contradict the explicit terms of this law.

[Arria Perreault]

I agree with the philosophy of the law. Here are some remarks.

3. Five calendar days after the due date, a landowner who has failed timely to pay rental tier becomes a 'provisional citizen', and shall not have the right to vote or hold office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full. The citizen shall receive a notice (by IM or notecard) advising her or him of this risk and imminent change is status, and noting the deadline for final payment pursuant to this Act.

I don't think that we have to punish the people who don't pay their taxes by taking back the right of vote. This is not usual in rl.

5 days: we should take in consideration the reasons why people don't pay in time. Reasons are sometimes that people are making a trip or have trouble with their connection or their computer. About the first reason, we don't have now a possibility to pay in advance.

4. CDS has the right to make public the lists of provisional citizens from time to time, as reasonably needed for its administration of government.

I consider that the list of people who don't pay their taxes must not be published to protect their privacy. The list of voters can be publish, even if we can interpolate a list of "provisional citizen"

[Sonja Strom]

I don't think that we have to punish the people who don't pay their taxes by taking back the right of vote. This is not usual in rl.

I consider that the list of people who don't pay their taxes must not be published to protect their privacy. The list of voters can be publish, even if we can interpolate a list of "provisional citizen"

Arria, I am a little bit confused about what you wrote in your post. If those who do not pay their taxes (on time) still keep their right to vote, then they would be on the list of voters.

I also feel that a 5-day deadline is a bit harsh, because sometimes it is difficult to be in-world at a certain time, and we are not allowed to pay our tier ahead of time. There clearly has to be a deadline somewhere, though - could it work to make it be after 10 or 15 days?

[Sudane Erato]

Please remember that the current policy for collecting tier is to accept payment from the 28th of the month before until the 23rd of the month for which the tier is due. This is approximately 25 full days during which you can pay your tier. During this time, fully 8 reminders are sent to citizens, 4 emails and 4 IMs, which of course cease once you pay your tier.

Further, I have said repeatedly to people who have come to me and apologized that they will be away during those entire 25 days that I will be happy to accept a late payment, IF..... you will tell me by what day it will be paid... and they actually make the payment as you say you will. The few people who have come to me about this have done so as promised; I feel that that is a satisfactory solution for everyone.

For those people who are unexpectly away during the payment period, I have asked basically the same question. Please contact me via email, or ask a friend to do so, letting me know of the situation, and, again, letting me know by what date the tier will be paid. Few people avail themselves of this politeness.

Each month several people simply "block out" that they have to pay their tier, despite the 8 messages! For everyone who has, for the first time, not paid their tier, I IM them, asking that they please contact me immediately if they wish to keep their land. Those for whom it has indeed been a true "block out" will respond immediately, apologize, and proceed to make payment.

But... the majority of people who don't pay their tier simply disappear. They say nothing to me. They simply walk away from their responsibility. Often their land is for sale. Indeed, it has happened that tier is not paid on a parcel, and then a day after the tier boxes are closed, the parcel sells. The CDS loses the tier for that month, because the buyer does not feel it their responsibility to pay tier that the seller owes.

By giving 5 days grace period for those who do not pay their tier, we are addressing entirely those people who have simply abandoned their land and forcing the reponsible citizens of the CDS to shoulder the tier burden. It is more than fair. We have labored for many months under the law which prevents any re-possession of land before 3 months, at great expense to the CDS, and great unfairness to the majority of people who DO pay their tier on time. Even with Jamie's proposal made law, the citizens of the CDS will lose a full month's tier from abandoned land. At LEAST we can tip the scales to some level of fairness!

Sudane...................................

[Cindy Ecksol]

I agree with the philosophy of the law. Here are some remarks.

3. Five calendar days after the due date, a landowner who has failed timely to pay rental tier becomes a 'provisional citizen', and shall not have the right to vote or hold office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full. The citizen shall receive a notice (by IM or notecard) advising her or him of this risk and imminent change is status, and noting the deadline for final payment pursuant to this Act.

I don't think that we have to punish the people who don't pay their taxes by taking back the right of vote. This is not usual in rl.

An interesting comment. If I don't pay my rent in RL (or my mortgage) then I lose the right to live in my house. In other words, I cannot verify that this address is my residence -- and thus lose the right to vote. So it makes perfect sense to me to say that someone who does not pay their tier (the equivalent of rent or taxes depending on how you want to look at it) in CDS should lose the right to vote until they "certify" their address by making the payment. After all, we don't allow someone who is a member of the CDS Group to vote if they simply declare their intention to buy property. We only allow them to vote after they have actually bought property and paid a month of tier. Depriving them of that right when they have not paid their tier for a month seems perfectly in balance to me.

I'll also note that if I'm a member of a RL organization that charges dues and I do not pay my dues, I often will not have the right to vote until I've paid. So what Jamie proposes seems very reasonable to me. All a citizen has to do to get back their voting rights is pay their tier, and as Sudane point out, they have already had 30 days to do that (and 8 reminders) by the time Jamie's proposal would have made them provisional citizens.

Cindy

[Arria Perreault]

I don't think that we have to punish the people who don't pay their taxes by taking back the right of vote. This is not usual in rl.

I consider that the list of people who don't pay their taxes must not be published to protect their privacy. The list of voters can be publish, even if we can interpolate a list of "provisional citizen"

Arria, I am a little bit confused about what you wrote in your post. If those who do not pay their taxes (on time) still keep their right to vote, then they would be on the list of voters.

Yes, Sonja. It's a bit confusing. I explane my point of view.

1. I don't agree with the principle to take back the right to vote of citizen who are late to pay their fees.
2. If we keep this principle, I think that the list of people who are late to pay their fees cannot be published.
3. I know that by publishing the list of voters, it is possible to see that some people are missing and to interpret that they don't have paid their fees. But the publication of the list of voters is a necessity.

[Sonja Strom]

Thanks Sudane, Cindy and Arria for the further explanation.

Now I understand a lot more about the 5-day deadline. I was thinking of the due date being the 1st of the month, with there then being a 23-day window for late payment. I completely agree that payment should be made by the 28th or the landowner should be in contact with the treasurer about it, and so I do agree with the 5-day deadline.

I also think if no more effort has been made than that by a landowner, by the 28th there is no real reason our community should want them to then vote for who will govern the rest of us for the next six months. In addition, there has to be some consequence or some landowners might just choose to ignore the deadline.

I also see no reason not to publish their names - is it because they would be embarrassed? All it would be is a reflection of the reality (however virtual) of the situation. Doing that could even be a good thing for the landowner, because perhaps a friend of theirs would see it and be able to explain for them what was happening.

[Justice Soothsayer]

The RA passed the following slightly amended version at the meeting of 4 January 2008:

1. Citizens of CDS are expected to pay tier rentals to the CDS Treasurer in a timely fashion. The Treasurer may set (by posting to the CDS Forums) reasonable monthly notification and due date schedules.

2. The CDS Executive Branch shall provide for notice (which may be by IM or notecard) to each land owner when they have failed to pay tier rental by the established due date.

3. Five calendar days after the due date, a landowner who has failed timely to pay rental tier becomes a 'provisional citizen', and shall not have the right to vote or hold office in the CDS until and unless all amounts overdue to CDS are paid in full. The citizen shall receive a notice (by IM or notecard) advising her or him of this risk and imminent change is status, and noting the deadline for final payment pursuant to this Act.

4. CDS has the right to make public the lists of provisional citizens from time to time, as reasonably needed for its administration of government.

5. One calendar month after the due date, if the landowner has continued to fail to pay the full amount then overdue to CDS, then CDS shall send another notice to the landowner warning of imminent reclaimation (loss of the land). Fourteen days after that 1-month notice is sent, the CDS Executive Branch shall re-take ownership of the land, and the owner shall be removed from 'provisional citizen' status. The CDS Executive Branch may then dispose of the land by re-sale or otherwise in such manner as is consistent with our laws, and the landowner will lose any further interest in the parcel. All objects on the parcel at the time of reclaimation shall be returned, and a notice of the reclaimation sent to the landowner.

6. If a landowner who has failed to pay rental tier owns more than one CDS property, and reaches the one-month notice above, all of that owner's properties are subject to the reclamation rules specified above. However, this paragraph 6 shall only be in force on and after the date on which CDS government has posted a method by which absent landowners can effectively prepay rent, in amounts at least up to 3 months' in advance.

7. The CDS Executive Branch is encourged to take reasonable additional steps to notify citizens of past due amounts and all other matters described in this Act, but timely rent payment primarily is the citizen's responsibility to monitor.

8. This law repeals any provisions of prior CDS laws (including NL 7-6 [http://portal.slcds.info/index.php?id=208]) that specify land reclaimation or rent payment methods, to the extent that they contradict the explicit terms of this law.