Tomás Iñiguez
| Tomás Iñiguez | |
 | |
 Who's Who of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Tomás Iñiguez |
| Titles & Offices |
Secretary of the Treasury (1760 AN - ) Floor Leader of the Civic Governance Alliance in the 13th and 14th Cortes Federales Member of the Federal Assembly for North Lyrica |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Political Affiliation | Civic Governance Alliance |
| Organizations | Civic Governance Alliance |
| Known For | Leading the Civic Governance Alliance in the chamber and its reform and good-government agenda |
| Residence | North Lyrica |
| National Origin |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Citizenship(s) |
Nouvelle Alexandrie |
Tomás Iñiguez is a New Alexandrian politician who has served as Secretary of the Treasury since 1760 AN. A deputy for North Lyrica, he has been the floor leader of the Civic Governance Alliance (CGA) through the 13th and 14th Cortes Federales, leading the party in the chamber on behalf of its leader, Elena Svensson.
From the opposition benches of the 13th Cortes, Iñiguez used the CGA's votes to win procedural and oversight concessions from the Federal Humanist Party government of Premier José Manuel Montero. He took the Treasury in 1760 AN under the Federal Accord, which the agreement makes the guarantor of the coalition budget. He secured the grid-costing and tranche-by-tranche review requirements attached to the Cascade Reactor Deployment Act, 1757, and has pressed for stronger reform commitments in confirmation and anti-corruption debates in the chamber. He also gave the CGA's support to the opposition's National Resilience Fund Act, 1758, tabled on 2.IV.1758 AN, carrying the party's conditions for independent audit, published costings, and a separate vote of the Cortes on each disbursement into the design of the National Resilience Fund.[1]
Secretary of the Treasury
Iñiguez joined the Council of State as Secretary of the Treasury when Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves presented his government to the Federal Assembly on 15.I.1760 AN.[2]
Budget and cost-of-living relief
He tabled the Accord's first budget, the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760, on behalf of the Council of State. The Act kept the tax rates in force at the end of 1759 AN and added no tax on the Regions, but strengthened four direct taxes on the largest tax bases, among them a 15 percent minimum effective tax on the profits of companies whose turnover exceeds NAX€750 million. Better collection of taxes already owed paid for a lower tax on low earners, and the strengthened direct taxes met the cost of a reduced value-added tax on essentials. Iñiguez told the Assembly that the budget asked the most of those best able to pay and funded relief without a wider deficit. The Assembly passed it by 466 votes to 297 on 14.IV.1760 AN, and it received Royal Assent on 22.IV. José Manuel Montero, by then Leader of the Opposition, called it the largest budget in the Federation's history.[3]
The Treasury co-sponsored the Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760, which the Secretary of Social Security and National Solidarity, Ana Yuisa Caguax, tabled for the Council of State. Signed into law on 10.V.1760 AN, it halved value-added tax to 5 percent on essential food and household energy, a basket the Treasury defines and publishes each year, and was paid for within the budget with no new borrowing.[4]
Lindström Recovery Protocol
When Montero's caretaker government signed the Lindström Recovery Protocol with Natopia on 29.XV.1759 AN, Iñiguez, then the Accord's nominee for the Treasury, undertook to disclose any public exposure under the Protocol before it was authorized.[5] At the plenary of the Natopian-Nouvelle Alexandrie Joint Economic Council in Cárdenas in III.1760 AN, where he sat with Gonçalves and Secretary of State Gabrielle Fitzgerald, he argued that once the Natopian orders ran out, the factories, technology and trained workers they had paid for should remain in the Federation. "An order book empties; a factory stays," he said.[6]
On 12.IX.1760 AN, as a Bank of Saint Andre-led consortium opened the Protocol's NAX€60 billion window for regional lenders, the Treasury published the disclosure he had promised. By its account the window drew on no budget line, the Federation did not guarantee it, and it required no vote of the Federal Assembly. Iñiguez said it had taken eight months to set up Federal Bank supervision and the disclosure before any money was paid in.[7] A week later he led the New Alexandrian delegation to the Joint Economic Council's ministerial committee in Lindström, which opened a second orders window of NAX€160 billion running into early 1761 AN. He sought more of the new orders for firms that build their products in the Federation rather than for Natopian companies with New Alexandrian subsidiaries; the communiqué did not record the outcome of his request.[8]
On 16.XIII.1760 AN the Treasury reported the result of the Federation's first recovery-bond issue, worth NAX€250 billion: private investors took NAX€150 billion, and Natopia bought the other NAX€100 billion through the Protocol's backstop. The fifteen-year bonds fell within the borrowing authorized by the Supplementary Appropriation Act, 1760, which Iñiguez had sponsored,[9] and priced inside the Protocol's yield cap. Iñiguez said the sale showed that the Federation could raise money on reasonable terms while it recovered. "Three écus in five came from private buyers, and that is the number I watch," he said. Montero replied that selling the debt to Natopia did not make it any cheaper to repay.[10]
Clean government
Iñiguez had introduced the CGA's Clean Government and Political Reform Act, 1754 on 18.I.1755 AN. The Federal Humanists defeated it in the Assembly by 438 votes to 260 on 11.VI.1755 AN, arguing that its anti-corruption commission would duplicate an existing agency. As Secretary of the Treasury he co-sponsored its successor, the Clean Government and Elections Act, 1760, with Francisco Gabaza of the Federal Consensus Party. The new Act proposed no commission. It moved the Federal Audit Office out of the Treasury to report to the Cortes alone and let the Committee of Ethics in Government order witnesses to testify and papers to be produced. "We moved the auditor out of my own department and gave the ethics office the power to ask for the papers," Iñiguez said when it received Royal Assent on 20.X.1760 AN.[11]
See also
- Civic Governance Alliance
- Elena Svensson
- 13th Cortes Federales
- 14th Cortes Federales
- Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759
- Lindström Recovery Protocol
References
- ^ "The party of clean hands makes its case in an election about the price of bread", NBC Newsfeed, 16.V.1759 AN
- ^ Administration of Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves.
- ^ "The Accord's first budget becomes law as the Cortes clears its Appropriations and Taxation Act", NBC Newsfeed, 22.IV.1760 AN.
- ^ "The Accord's cost-of-living relief becomes law, cutting tax on essentials and creating a consumer watchdog", NBC Newsfeed, 10.V.1760 AN.
- ^ "Natopia backs New Alexandrian recovery with orders, Alexandrium purchases, credit and bank capital", NBC Newsfeed, 29.XV.1759 AN.
- ^ "The Accord presses to turn Natopia's recovery orders into lasting New Alexandrian industry", NBC Newsfeed, 14.III.1760 AN.
- ^ "Bank of Saint Andre consortium opens a NAX€60 billion window for the Federation's regional lenders", NBC Newsfeed, 12.IX.1760 AN.
- ^ "Natopia opens a second orders window, worth NAX€160 billion, for New Alexandrian goods", NBC Newsfeed, 19.IX.1760 AN.
- ^ 14th Cortes Federales.
- ^ "Natopia buys NAX€100 billion of the Federation's first recovery bonds", NBC Newsfeed, 16.XIII.1760 AN.
- ^ "The Accord's Clean Government Act becomes law, taking the auditor out of the Treasury and completing its five opening bills", NBC Newsfeed, 20.X.1760 AN.
