ForumGarden

I am curious to know if other countries have as many new laws go into effect as the US has in it's different states. Some of these new laws seem OK, and others, hmm.

40,000 new laws to go into effect in 2012 - US news - Life - msnbc.com

40,000 seems a lot to me. But most seemed good ideas... The particularly interesting one was Georgia making it compulsory to check the immigration status of most applicants for jobs, and some mayor objecting on the grounds it would hurt the economy.

Does he object to the potential reduction in cheap labour, by any chance? Or am I being just too cynical?

I just googled for TX ID card. It costs $16. If they don't drop that to zero then they are making a fee to vote (de facto poll tax), which I believe is not legal.

I just googled for TX ID card. It costs $16. If they don't drop that to zero then they are making a fee to vote (de facto poll tax), which I believe is not legal.


???

I don't see the connection. Why would it affect the voting status of applicants? Illegal immigrants wouldn't be on the Electoral Register or whatever you call it. Oh. Do you have a list of registered voters? I am suddenly aware that's an assumption.

$16/applicant might reduce competitiveness compared to other states, I suppose. My cynical side wonders who makes money from the test? Could it be those passing the law, by any chance?

(And looking back at my previous post, I said "most" seemed good ideas to me. Sloppy. I should have made it clear that I was referring only to those mentioned in the article quoted. And that article COULD be very biased in the examples it has chosen)

The new Texas law requires a Texas ID for Texas residents to vote in Texas. Voting is a right that can't be taxed. Therefore the ID must be available for free to qualified people.

The new Texas law requires a Texas ID for Texas residents to vote in Texas. Voting is a right that can't be taxed. Therefore the ID must be available for free to qualified people.


Yep. See the logic. I assume voting not being taxable is a National law that applies to all states. I think we've got a bit at crossed purposes. How much does it cost a company to check the id? It doesn't cost us to register but is compulsory (and they check we have, at least in my Borough).

So I was assuming you'd register for free and the mayor was objecting to the cost for businesses of checking up on you.

The way registering affects our tax status is that the register is (I think) used for Council Tax purposes (Council Tax is our local tax that pays for waste disposal, roads, policing etc etc) so NOT registering is effectively a tax dodge. I may be confused about this, though. If I am, I'm sure someone will correct me.

I don't know anything about how ours works ... or fails to work. That's too deep into the weeds for me right now.