Act of Congress MTR CPU Fix Act

[AverageAnnika]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
​

---

A BILL TO

ADJUST CIVIL PENALTY UNITS TO INFLATION AND TO MIRROR THE PENALTY UNIT VALUE




​

---

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:


​

PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘MTR CPU Fix Act’

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by OwnedBlock.

(4) This Act has been sponsored by AverageAnnika.

(5) This Act has been co-sponsored by antonfr.

(6) This Act amends the following acts:

(a) Redmont Civil Code Act

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) This bill intends to adjust the Civil Penalty Unit value commensurate to inflation and inline with the Penalty Unit value change imposed by the Moderate Taxes to the Rescue Act.

PART II — Contents

3. Amendments

(1) Part II section 8, subsection 3 of the Redmont Civil Code Act shall be amended as follows:
“(3) One civil penalty unit shall be equivalent to $100 $120.“

 

[xXTheoryXx]

Presidential Assent

PRESIDENTIAL ASSENT​

---

This Act amends Part II §8(3) of the Redmont Civil Code Act, raising the value of one civil penalty unit from $100 to $120.

I grant assent for three reasons.

First, the Commonwealth should not operate two penalty systems that drift apart by accident. The Moderate Taxes to the Rescue Act moved the criminal penalty unit to $120 and the civil unit was left behind. Nobody decided that a civil penalty should be worth less than a criminal one in real terms, and no argument has been advanced for why it should. This Act restores the parity that was always intended.

Second, the drafting is exact. It amends one subsection, quotes it correctly, and marks the change in the manner required by §10(1)(c)(i) of the Legislative Standards Act. That is worth noting in a session where several bills have reached this desk in a considerably less careful state.

Third, the effect is proportionate. A twenty percent adjustment restores value that inflation has already taken. It does not create new violations, does not expand anyone's authority, and does not alter a single legal test. It changes a number that had fallen out of step with the rest of the law.

I record three observations for Congress rather than as objections to this Act.

Part II §8(1) provides that penalty units apply under the Civil Code and other Acts of Congress. This adjustment therefore reaches every fine in Redmont law expressed in civil penalty units, not only those listed in the Code. I take that to be intended, but the title does not convey it and members should understand the scope of what has passed.

The Civil Code retains fixed dollar figures that this Act does not touch, including the nominal damages cap at $7,500, the consequential damages cap at $50,000, and the legal fee minimums of $12,000, $6,000 and $3,000. If the principle is that penalties should keep pace with inflation, that principle applies to those figures equally, and they are now further behind than they were yesterday. I would welcome a bill indexing them or expressing them in penalty units.

This Act contains no transitional provision. Conduct occurring before signage should be assessed at the value in force at the time, and I expect the courts to read it that way given Part II §2 of the Civil Code and the ordinary presumption against retrospective operation. Future amendments of this kind should say so expressly rather than rely on that presumption.

My thanks to OwnedBlock for authoring this Act, to Former Representative AverageAnnika for sponsoring it, and to Vice President Anton Fontaine for co-sponsoring.

---

This bill has been granted assent and is hereby signed into law.

Theory Fontaine
30th President of the Commonwealth of Redmont​