Money is tight. We all know and feel that! Stopping the spending of money is not going to do anyone any good. Careful, thoughtful spending of money is making an investment.

This became most clear to me last night when I attended part of a LWV forum on education where finance was the primary topic. While there was a lot of discussion and audience interaction about money and where it comes from to pay what, I felt that some good opportunities were missed. Please remember this article and this blog are my personal opinion. They, in no way, represent the opinion of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County.

Here’s the low down as I see it.

People want to see education improved because improved education means better jobs for more people (if the jobs are available) and that has a net positive on the revenues of federal, state, and local governments.

People want to see spending cut at all levels of government.

People want to see that the money that is spent has the biggest possible return.

The question for me is how is that best accomplished. It was noted at the meeting last night that the State of Virginia is already seeing a loss in grant funding by not choosing to participate in the Common Core Curriculum. It was also noted that very little of the money coming into to schools is used at the high school level, and that funds for technology in the school room have all but vanished. Additionally, it was noted that Special Education takes a big hit financially by children being inappropriately put into Special Education classes when they don’t actually meet the critera/needs.

So, what should be done about it? Here are my thoughts.

To get the biggest “bang for the buck”, let’s invest highly in the educational opportunities of Head Start, covering that 0 to 5 year group. Why this group? Because if you look at the common denominators, money invested in that area will produce the highest rewards:

Early intervention to correctly identify special needs of children and families and implementation of services at the earliest stages of development.

These first 5 years are the years when so much of the rest of a child’s life is defined. This is where issues like self-esteem and self-worth can be dealt with most effectively.

By giving an opportunity to bring all children up to the same or similar level by the time they enter elementary school, you reduce the needs for remedial services and redundancy. Effectively reducing costs at elementary school level and .

The social skills learned in the 0-5 age group, last a lifetime. By helping to define and shape those skills you reduce the number of people involved in the juvenile justice system and in the adult penal system. (It costs $240.99 per day per youth to hold him/her in a juvenile justice facility – national average in 2009.) For some additional information on this topic you might want to check out “Survey of Youth in Residential Placement: Needs and Services“. I’m not talking about those core values and beliefs that one learns at home, I’m talking about the skills in communicating with others, learning to work with those of their own age.

Much of the money spent in this country on child abuse intervention and prevention is related to neglect more than actual abuse. The early identification of such problems and early intervention offered by Head Start could save a small fortune in taxpayer money by starting the process early. Identifying issues pertaining to nutrition and mental health at an early age can ultimately reduce the “special needs” funding in later school years.

I haven’t said anything new here. All of what I have said can be backed up with tons of reports and documents. We have long known the importance of programs such as Head Start and the role of early intervention in reducing the need for far more long term services as a child grows up.

What I can’t understand is WHY something has not been done to invest more in these early formative years to prevent the costs for a lifetime of service needs. I mean, worst case scenario, we would not need as many social services or lawyers, would not need as many detention facilities, would not need as many prisons …. oh…maybe I’ve just answered my own question. Maybe there are those who see social services, incarceration, and all of the personnel and properties (paid for by taxpayer money) as businesses. Keeping businesses open, keeping the revolving doors of detention facilities well greased and beds full might just be the incentive to keep from helping to stop the process.

How much money is spent is, of course, important. How effective that expenditure is should be even more important. So, for me, it’s simply focus on the 0-5 age group as a prime target area. Money invested there has a greater potential of return than all of the others. I’m not saying that other funding should be cut, not by any means. But, early intervention MUST be the key to making effective long-term changes that will save taxpayers money and open the doors of opportunity to more Americans. (It also doesn’t hurt that we would have healthier and happier citizens contributing to our economic growth once the barriers of poverty and lack of education are effectively countered.

Just my opinion. I had to leave the meeting early last night and didn’t get to ask the panelist about this issue, but a very quick search using Google provided me with hundreds of documents supporting my arguments.

Where are the Sample Ballots for Montgomery County, VA? It does not appear that they exist. However, the information you need is available if you happen to have internet access and the knowledge of how to make “VERIS” (Virginia Election and Registration Information System) work. Oh, and you will also need to have your voter ID card handy. You can access that information on the card you received in the mail or by going to VERIS and checking.

VOTER ID INFORMATION:

• Go to the Search by Voter Registration page on VERIS: https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicLookup.aspx?Link=Registration

• If you know your voter ID#, you can input it on the screen, otherwise choose your “Locality” from the drop down menu, then put in your “Last Name”, then your “First Name”, then “Date of Birth”, and finally the “Last 4 digits of SSN”.

Find Your Voting Information

• After putting your information in, click on the “Find” button and you will be taken to the next page which will have your information. NOTE: ** You will need to click on the “District” in order to be sure that all necessary information is visible

• Search Results: Your page should look similar to this:

Find Your Voting Information Part 2

• For this election you want to pay attention to the numbers to the right of State Senate and the House of Delegates. The Town, if applicable, denotes that you are voting in Town election as well. You may find it easiest to either print this page or write down the information because you will need it in order to figure out who should be on your ballot.

DETERMINE WHAT IS GOING TO BE ON YOUR BALLOT:

Now, go to a new webpage: https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicElections.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 where you will see this **Note: you have to pick your “Locality” i.e., Montgomery County, before the other 3 fields will open up:

Understand Your Ballot 1

Use the drop down menu to choose your locality and your precints. It is not necessary to use the other 2 areas unless you are tying to narrow your search rather to a specific office or issue. The information you need for Locality and Precinct are on your Voter Card and on the screen you opened above. You will end up with a screen that looks something like this and then, all you need to do is click “Search”.

Understand Your Ballot 2

Once you have clicked on the “Search” button you need to click on the “Search Results” button and you will see a list of Elections. The Election information that you want to view is 2011 November General and you need to click on it (it is at the top of the list).

Understand Your Ballot 3

Clicking on the “2011 November General” link will take you to a page that has all of the Candidate Details:

Understand Your Ballot 4

On this page you will need to scroll down for the full list, but if you have the information from your voter ID card, or if you printed out or wrote down the information from steps 1-5 above, you can now scroll and look to see who should be on your ballot. In the example used in those steps above

• State Senate candidates would be those in the Jurisdiction #021
• House of Delegates would be those in #008 (Meaning that #012 candidates will not be a choice on your ballot.
• Where Jurisdiction says “Montgomery County”, all of the candidates listed should be appearing on your ballot.

As I’m sure you’ve noted by now, sample ballots would have been easier. However, it really does not take that much time or trouble to follow these steps to make sure you know who you have the choice of voting for.

Additionally, it will help voters to make sure that the ballots are correct. If you have this information with you and you see something different (you can print the webpage for reference), you should immediately report it to election officials.

Hope this is helpful to someone out there! It helped me get my list going:)

Most recent: Nutter opts out of debate (Collegiate Times).

Just because someone with the campaign does not like a moderator (LWV candidate forum was “blackballed” by all Republicans when Roanoke Times Editor, Christian Trejbal was chosen to be moderator), or is afraid their candidate might be presented with a question which he is unable or unwilling to answer is NO EXCUSE for candidates to show such disrespect for voters.

I don’t give a rip which party you belong to, if you are ultimately elected you are elected to represent ALL constituents. NOT just those who voted for you. NOT just registered voters. Rather, ALL constituents and every voice should be important.

If a candidate is already telling you that he/she is not going to listen or talk to anyone who might disagree whim him/her or ask a question the he/she does not have an immediate answer for, what reason on this earth would have to believe he/she will do so after elected?

Being a good elected official means having the courage to stand before those who disagree with you, to talk with them, to listen to them, and to try to come up to reasonable solution.

Our local candidates, here in Blacksburg and Christiansburg all displayed that type of courage! Each one of them is a winner in my book for that very reason. Each of our Constitution Officers and School Board Candidates (in contested races) in Montgomery County showed courage and showed up. And, you know what, they had a lot more at stake. I say that because if someone at the State level makes a decision, the impact of that decision will cascade down hill to the County, Town and City levels so fast it will make your head swim.

Also taking the time to show up, knowing that there could well be those in attendance who did not agree with them (and those people were there), were Sen. B. Bell, Sen. J. Edwards, and Cm. D. Langhrer. It was a very informative couple of hours. I didn’t agree with all the candidates on everything, I never do. And, they did not try to dodge tough questions. The different candidates certainly did not agree on everything.

What was missing was for me to have heard response from more points of view. It left me lacking with information that could have affected my vote. But, the choice was made to avoid citizen questions, to avoid an opportunity to talk with and listen to the concerns of the public.

I guess the LWV’s messed up by not going out and recruiting volunteers that were clearly Republican and to bring bus loads of Republican citizens into the forum. Perhaps the LWV’s messed up by adhering to their policy of non-partisanship and a refusal to endorse any particular party or candidate. But, ya know what, that ain’t gonna change either!

It looks like on November 8th I will have to make a choice between:

1. Voting for a candidate that has had a ton of money thrown at them in order to try to insure their election, or
2. Voting for someone with the courage to stand before the people (that’s you and me) and answer some questions about what they believe to be solutions to some of the problems we face.

Now, just which one of those do you think I am likely to support?

Being able to receive and spend money is something that anyone can do. I do it all the time and so do you. In fact, you’ll be electing someone to do just that, accept the money you pay in taxes and spend it.

But, to have the courage to face opposition, to face those you propose to represent and have an honest discussion, well, that’s where my vote goes.

We need elected officials with courage! We need elected officials willing to take a stand and to stand face-to-face with those they represent if we are to insure that OUR voices are heard at the State, County, and Local levels of government. Those officials must be willing to “play with others well” if they have any hope of trying to get others to here OUR voices. That means that strict adherence to Party lines just won’t cut it. They must be able to negotiate which requires, quess what… the proven ability to meet those with whom they disagree face-to-face and work to come up with reasonable solutions.

Those of us living in the western portion of Virginia are already at a disadvantage because of population density. We only have about 1/5 of the total voices in the General Assembly trying to look out for our interests. Yet, we are significantly different from the rest of the state in terms of our needs. Our topography is different, we have a different socio-economic patterns, we have different economic development patterns, and we have different technological challenges (to name but a few). Our voices are already weakened by the other 4/5ths of voices representing the rest of the state.

Unless you want to see our area become a dumping ground for everything that the citizens of the rest of the state don’t want to see “in their backyards”, we must elect people with courage and integrity.

Please take the time to ask yourself if the person you are considering voting for has that type of courage. If he/she is already elected, the go to the General Assembly website and look to see what they have done to sponsor bills that will help our area. Don’t listen to the “well I did this and I did that” responses. Look for the proof to support those assertions. If all they did was to ride on the coattails of others and vote for something, is that the type of person we really need representing us. What happens when those who provided the coattails are no longer there. No, we need courage and we need leadership. We do not need avoiders and followers.

THINK! THEN VOTE! November 8th is election day!

VPAP.org – The Virginia Public Access Project is the source for finding out who is funding each candidate. (My thanks to Mr. Langhrer for this one!)

For instance: Click on the Candidates and Elections link at the top of the page and then go to “House” in the drop down menu. Now, scroll down to  “District 12″ (green in color and underlined) and click on this link.

You will see that Don Langrehr raised $44,191 and Joseph Yost raised $162,570. That’s quite a difference. It makes me wonder why that difference exists. So…. click on “Don Langrehr” and you will go to a page that gives basic information on the number of contributions broken down into various amount groups and types. They are exhibited as Count, Receipt, & Type of Receipt. There are links in some of the Receipt column entries and you can click on those to get information on specific donations.

$0 Starting Balance on July 1, 2011

Count	Receipt	Type of Receipt
90	$26,486	Cash Contributions More than $100
178	$10,614	Cash Contributions of $100 or Less
3	$1,615	In-Kind Contributions More than $100
0	$0	In-Kind Contributions of $100 or Less
	$5,476	Loans Received
	$0	Miscellaneous Receipts
	$44,191	Receipts (07/01/2011-09/30/2011)

Expense	Type of Expense
$9,862	Itemized Expenses
$1,615	In-Kind Expenses
$3,000	Loans Repaid
$0	Surplus Funds
$14,477	Expenses (07/01/2011-09/30/2011)

$29,714 Ending Balance on September 30, 2011

Now follow the same process for Mr. Yost and you see some significant differences.

$0 Starting Balance on April 1, 2011

Count	Receipt	Type of Receipt
46	$124,792	Cash Contributions More than $100
143	$4,893	Cash Contributions of $100 or Less
13	$31,754	In-Kind Contributions More than $100
3	$131	In-Kind Contributions of $100 or Less
	$1,000	Loans Received
	$0	Miscellaneous Receipts
	$162,570	Receipts (04/01/2011-09/30/2011)

Expense	Type of Expense
$30,193	Itemized Expenses
$31,885	In-Kind Expenses
$1,000	Loans Repaid
$0	Surplus Funds
$63,078	Expenses (04/01/2011-09/30/2011)

$99,492 Ending Balance on September 30, 2011

Mr. Langhrer’s largest single contribution was for $1,425 and came from an individual.

Mr. Yost’s funding high came from Dominion Leadership Trust and was for $100,000.

Okay….quick break…google search “virginia pac”. I found this: http://www.vapolitics.net/newpacs.htm. Now a find on that page using the word “Dominion” and the 2nd one found is the Dominion Leadership Trust PAC, Inc. There is a number to the right (VA-02-040) that is underlined meaning that there is a pdf document that contains more information. On page 2 of that document, you’ll find that the sole purpose of the PAC is the “election of republican state legislators”. Number 5 on page 1 shows that the committee is a Political Action Committee for In state use only and has a filing year of 2002 (when it was first organized).

On page 4 of the pdf is a list of Principal Officers:

• William J. Howell, Chairman
• H. Morgan Griffith, Director
• Leo C. Wardrup, Director
• Jeannemarie A. Devolites, Director

Now, back on topic: You can do the same thing for any other candidates in House or Senate. You won’t find the information on our local elections because VPAP’s Local Election Initiative only covers 34 cities and counties and Montgomery County is not one of those. Maybe next year:) Actually, it is a very small portion of the state where there is coverage at the County/City level and virtually none of those are in this end of the state.

I’m always looking for sources of information on elected officials and government. This site has a lot of good information. You should check it out when you can.

What can I say, it takes a long time to load these video files from the LWV candidate forums in Montgomery County, I gotta do something with my time and I really love doing this kind of research. (Now if I could just find a job to pay me to do this:)

On Wednesday October 26 Candidate Forums are being held for:

• Town of Blacksburg, Town council: 7-9pm in Blacksburg Town Council Chambers
• General Assembly Forum is being held at 7pm in the City of Radford at the Radford High School Auditorium

On Thursday Oct 27, General Assembly Forum: 7pm-9pm at the Montgomery County Government Center in Christiansburg.

Voter Guides are now available for all of the forums except City of Radford.

Videos of the three (3) forums already held (Town of Christiansburg, Montgomery County Board of Supervisors & School Board, and Montgomery County Constitutional Officers) are available on the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, VA 2011 Election webpage (http://lwvmcva.org/LWV-2011Version/2011Elections/MainPage.html) and have been distributed to local libraries as DVDs.

Videos of the Blacksburg and Montgomery County General Assembly forums will be posted as soon as they are available. If a video of the Radford forum becomes available, it will be posted on the LWVMCVA.org website as well.  In the meantime, the Voter Guides give some good information for voters.

I hear candidates talking about “I’m gonna do this.” “I’m gonna do that.” but there is something routinely missing. “How ya gonna pay for this or that?”

The effective and efficient handling of taxpayer money is not about hording it so that it draws interest over the years. Heck! If I had enough extra money, I could do that with my own money. If you’re getting enough of my tax money to horde it away, then give it back and let me handle it for myself. Having enough set aside for a rainy day is one thing. Sitting on top of resources, treating them as if they were your own little private funds, drawing minimal interest, is irresponsible.

That very passive “no work required” approach is not what I hire elected officials to do. I want them to take my tax money and invest it but not to sit in a bank somewhere. I want to see it invested in making some good commonsense decisions for citizens. While applicable at all levels of government, this is particularly true when the money stream hits home, right in local government.

Federal and State resources are dwindling. Local City, County, and Town governments are going to have to use their local tax bases to pick up the slack. That simply means that taxes have to increase OR every penny spent has to get the biggest “bang for the buck”.  The money invested must show a clear return or at least show that money spent today to do something will save money because putting it off until later will allow the costs to rise.

For instance, delaying the repair and maintenance of roads. Delay for a year or two those repairs that do need to be made and guess what happens, the cost of labor goes up, the cost of material goes up, the amount of repairs needed increases and so a year or two later, you are having to spend $1.5 million on repairs that would have cost only $1 million if they had been dealt with at the time. In the meantime, what if an accident occurs because of the failure to maintain those roads and someone files a lawsuit. Oh, heck don’t worry about it the attorneys and insurance company will take care of anything that comes up. Okay, let’s look at that route. Attorneys cost money. Law Suits result in insurance rates going up (that’s a long-term expense). And, the initial problem, in this case road repair, still has to be done and gets done at the higher cost rather than the initial cost. If you are getting a visual of a “snowball” of taxpayer money rolling steadily away from the control of taxpayers, you’re getting my general idea.

This is not just about road repairs. It concerns all aspects of government spending. Not getting equipment replaced until it falls apart can mean having increased repair/maintenance costs over time and less efficient use of fuels. Not taking care of the general repair/maintenance of school buildings could result in a building collapse. Not providing the quality of training required by staff can result in things being done in less efficient ways creating a long-term expense to taxpayers.  And, the list goes on and on and on.

There is a big difference between simply “throwing money at something” and “effectively using” that money. Elected officials must be held responsible for making decisions that are in the best interest of the jurisdiction as a whole. Whether that responsibility is making the decision on how money is spent, or in establishing the policies and procedures for the oversight of the handling of the money, or making sure that staff hired to enforce the policies and procedures and doing their job, it is ultimately elected officials that are and should be held accountable.

In order to accomplish this, elected officials have to understand the impact of their decisions on the jurisdiction as a whole. It requires asking questions that can be answered. (Asking questions about things for which there are no answers is simply blowing smoke and misdirecting citizen attention.) If questions can’t be answered, then do the research to find out what other answerable questions might serve the same purpose and use those instead. Look at the long-term impact of spending decision, not just how they affect things today. Use some good judgment and above all DON’T make promises that you cannot keep. Any elected official who has the authority to raise taxes and tells you that they will not do so is nutz! They cannot predict the future any better than you or I can predict it. If things continue along the route of the loss of revenue from State and Federal sources, particularly for those things that can have a good potential for increasing the revenue stream in the future or lessening the future impact of problems, it may well become necessary to increase taxes. A good candidate will tell you that they can’t make that promise but here are the things that I want to do in order to offset those potential problems … (Oh, and make sure they give you the list of what they plan to do and how they plan to pay for it, oh and make sure that they have the additional resources to get it done such as public buy-in into the process and other participants (hired groups/individuals, other governments, social groups, etc.) are ready and waiting to make those promises come to life.

Promises are a dime a dozen … getting the job done is “priceless”. Invest that money in creating jobs, in keeping people safe, in educating people so that they have a better change at getting employed and buying homes to contribute to the tax revenue rather than be a drain on resources. Invest in the future. Don’t use that money unwisely, know the costs and benefits and make the best possible decision. Above all, don’t lie to me about what you are going to do. Those are some of the things that I look for in candidates.

• October 13: Christiansburg Town Council: Moderator Mary Housak: 7pm – 9pm, Christiansburg Town Council Chambers (Completed)
• October 17: Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and School Board: Moderator TBA: 7pm – 9pm, Blacksburg Town Council Chambers (Completed)
• October 20: Montgomery County Constitutional Officers: Moderator TBA: 7pm – 9pm, Montgomery County Government Center
• October 26: Blacksburg Town Council: Moderator Chris Trejbal: 7pm – 9pm, Blacksburg Town Council Chambers
• October 26: City of Radford General Assembly: Moderator Clay Waite: 7pm, Radford High School Auditorium
• October 27: Virginia General Assembly: Moderator Chris Trejbal: 7pm – 9pm, Montgomery County Government Center

As these programs are completed, videos of the forums are being posted on the lwvmcva.org website along with Voter Guides. The videos are unedited and don’t require much explanation. However, the Voter Guide is not always clear to everyone.

Part of the process used by the LWV’s for these forums is to send a questionnaire out to all candidates. Each candidate is asked to complete a biography and to give short responses (100 words) to some questions that have been picked by members of the LWV’s. (Hey! You wanna get your questions in on the written form rather than during the videos, you have to join the League:) These documents are given out to the public at the forums and are available on the lwvmcva.org website so that citizens who cannot attend the forums will have access to those as well as the videos posted there.

A link to sample copy of this questionnaire is provided on the Voter Guides section of the first forum listed on the 2011 Election page on the lwvmcva.org website. You will also find links to the video files for each forum on that page:  http://lwvmcva.org/LWV-2011Version/2011Elections/MainPage.html

So, if you have missed either the Christiansburg Town Council Forum or the one for the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors & School Board, you can still watch the candidates and hear their responses to questions generated by the audience.

These forums are but one piece of the whole when it comes to choosing who to vote for in the upcoming elections. Some additional things you might want to consider are:

• If the candidate is an incumbent (currently in office):
• How well have they performed in that capacity?
• How long have they served?
• Did they stand by previous campaign promises?
• If the candidate is not an incumbent:
• Do they have any work related or volunteer experience relative to the position for which they are applying?
• If they do have experience, how much and how does it compare to the duties to which they may be elected to perform?
• These two also apply to “incumbents” as it may be that one person can be an incumbent with extensive experience because of work, while another is an incumbent and experience in office but none otherwise.
• For all candidates:
• Are they making campaign promises that they may not be able to meet?
• This requires a bit of thinking because if they are a member of a group of elected officials, they are but one person and one vote. They cannot precipitate changes by themselves. This requires that they be willing to negotiate and compromise in order to get the best possible option for those they are elected to serve. For those in a singular office (i.e., constitutional officers, it is far more important to know what it is that they are suppose to do in the performance of their jobs and then look at whether or not what they are promising is even possible.
• What is the individual actually campaigning on? What changes do they propose to make?
• If the candidate is running under one or two major issues and does not or cannot articulate how those issues impact other areas, then it could be that the person really does not understand how changes in one area can affect another.

But enough of the general stuff. There are also a few things that I tend to look at, but they may not be of interest to you.

• Does the person follow the rules and regulations? It is fine to disagree with and strive to change rules and regulations, but making conscious attempts to violate the rules and regulation under which they must operate may not be the best thing. It could lead to costly legal action for taxpayers. (i.e., as much as I support the Freedom of Information Act, I know that there are some limits/exceptions which I do not agree with and I will work to change the laws on those. I would not, nor would I ever vote for anyone who violated those laws.)
• Does the person listen to all sides of a story before making a decision, or do they let one person’s wishes dictate their position? (This is easily seen in those who are incumbents. However, if you know the person running, the odds are good that you will see some of those same traits in how the handle things in the rest of their lives (home, work, church, etc.)
• Does the person show a willingness to work with others? Regardless of their position, every elected official has to work with others (employees, supervisors, peers, citizens, etc.) I don’t know about you but I’ve seen more than enough stone-walling in Congress of late to last me for a lifetime. Negotiation and compromise are crucial to effective leadership. A failure to do this results in a “winner” and a “looser”. Compromise makes sure that the best possible option for all is the outcome and while both sides of the argument may have to give a bit, they all end up winning to some degree.

I could go on for quite a bit on these, and I may well do that later. Right now work calls so I’ve got to attend.

Remember the lwvmcva.org website has candidate forums and each of the jurisdictions has videos of the main elected groups (Town Council, Board of Supervisors) offer online videos of their “performance”. The General Assembly only has live video of the current session, so that is not a great resource. However, there are other checks on the General Assembly that you won’t find for local officials. Sites like www.govtrack.us will allow you to check on the voting history and what bills those officials have proposed. Additionally, the Virginia General Assembly website provides access to information on incumbents listed by name. You can quickly see what committees the person is assigned and the Legislation for which they have been Chief Patron or Co-Patron. This gives you a good idea of what areas of interest the elected person has supported.

Is it worth all this work just to vote for someone? Well, I guess it depends on you. You are choosing who will make the decisions that will affect your daily lives and your community. Your vote could be the determining factor. It only take 1 vote to win.

I was well worth my efforts to attend. Although people were listening to speakers, carrying signs, and marching, something else was happening that I feel might be of even greater importance. People were talking to each other. They weren’t just talking to their friends and acquaintances, they were talking with total strangers. (I mean, ya can’t get much stranger than me and I heard a lot!) Walking around the crowd, people were talking about being dissatisfied with government. People were angry about corporate money buying government. They were angry that their needs were coming in 2nd to the needs of big business.

But, they were also talking very positively about change, the importance of voting (regardless of party) for those who will look out for the interest of the people rather than the interest of big business. Effective change begins by seeing a need, discussing the possible alternatives, and then taking action that has as little negative effect as possible. It requires some things that are seriously lacking in government these days, the ability to reason, cooperate, and compromise. To get the ball rolling will likely take removing some of the blockades preventing reason, cooperation, and compromise. Now, how do we accomplish that? Become an educated voter and VOTE! All the marching in the world will not do much good if “we the people” don’t put a stamp on the demand for change in the form of the vote. Furthermore, talk to others, get dialogs going that allow for free and open discussion of what problems exist and how to fix them. Fixing blame and pointing fingers will only generate anger. Forget that and focus on ways to fix the problems that exist.

I heard a lot of people talking about closing existing bank accounts and shifting to smaller local banks. Since this is my blog, and I can write anything I want, let me add that I came from a family where a number of family members worked for smaller local banks. Those banks were taken over by larger banks and guess what, service didn’t get any better, local bank employees lost their jobs, and it became much harder for local small businesses to get help in the form of loans. Some of my relatives argued that the further away from the local people the money got, the less the big banks cared about he impact of their practices on local businesses and customers. After all, it is more cost effective to handle the accounts of big businesses than it is for small ones.

We still have small local banks in our area. Some of the banks have been “taken over” by larger groups but established contracts with the larger banks that kept their control at the local level. Some did not. Maybe some of those people I heard talking will take the time to check on their banks to find out what what level of local control they maintain. Maybe those people will move to banks which have a stronger focus on local customers. Maybe that will speak more loudly to Wall Street and the Big Banking Industry than anything else. Maybe such moves with help to strengthen our local economy and encourage more local businesses. Only time will tell.

Anyway, this older gentleman was talking about the ways things use to be built to last and how now days, it seems like anyone who can pick up a hammer and saw calls him/herself a builder. As I listened, I did a trip back in time to my younger years, many centuries ago, and suddenly had an idea. Could this be related to the loss of Unions?

When I was younger, Unions were all over the place. If you wanted to work as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc., you went through the Union. The Union didn’t just take money and say okay, you’re a member now, you can work. They actually had training programs, evaluations, and designated levels of mastery in the different skills.

Apprentice programs provided by Unions made sure that not only did someone have the knowledge to do the job, they had actual hands-on training by people who had obtained high levels of proficiency in their chosen fields. Of course, those people with such training typically got paid more than those without the training. Is it possible that the loss/weakening of Unions has resulted in people with lesser skill levels are doing the jobs? Is it possible that those individuals and companies hiring employees would rather have cheaper labor even if the quality of the end product is reduced? Is it possible that more oversight and inspections by governmental entities have resulted because of this change? Is it possible that more legislation has been required in order to try to maintain minimal standards because of this? Is it possible that a significant portion of tax money is now being required to “police” things that previously had been handled by the Unions through their training and oversight? Things have changed a lot over the years. Not all change is bad and not all change is good.

You have to admit it does make some interesting food for thought … well, I have to admit that it has done so for me.

Is it true? Well, one place to start looking is the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (APA). A lot of information can be found there if one but takes the time to look. However, I will note that you have to do a bit of reading as well just to understand what things mean. I figured it was about time for someone to take a look at the revenues and expenditures at different government levels to see if there really  is an argument for double taxation.

The APA does an annual report that includes data on revenue and expenses for all of the Counties, Cities, and Towns in Virginia. What I did was to cut and paste the information from Montgomery County, City of Radford, and the Towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg so that if there is a difference between how tax revenues (and expenditures) are different, it can easily be seen. This file (pdf) is available here: LocalCompare2010. Although it is 30 pages total, use “bookmarks” to go to a specific section. Each section starts with a list of terms used and their definitions. All of the definitions used in Exhibit C including Exhibits C1-C8 can be found in the Exhibit C section. Section D did not provide any definitions in the APA report. For instance:

In Exhibit A – General Government Revenue and Expenditures, you will find that the Per Capita amount of local revenue for Christiansburg is more than twice that of Blacksburg. It is less than the City of Radford, but more than Montgomery County.

Before anyone shouts about VT skewing the numbers, yes it is true that the on-campus students at Virginia Tech do skew the numbers for Blacksburg. I believe that accounts for about 8,000 in population. If you could remove those from the Population you would see a difference in per capita. Some would argue that you have to compare Christianburg only to another town without a University. That is not quite accurate. You would actually have to compare Christiansburg to another jurisdiction within roughly the same proximity of a University the size of VT and of RU, having a similar population, having similar land features and similar weather. In other words, you can’t really do a direct comparison between Christiansburg and/or Blacksburg with anywhere else in the State of Virginia. You can make some assumptions, but nothing is going to be a close enough match. Soil types and slopes have a direct impact on the cost of roads, sidewalks, paths, etc. and on the upkeep of those things. Being more prone to snow and ice because of difference in elevation requires that extra steps be taken to handle those issues. The number of university students and traffic generated by the university’s events and visitors, increase wear and tear on roads, increase rescue calls, increase demands on police departments, etc.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s look a bit at how what you pay in County taxes may just provide for different things than how your local tax money is used. This information can be found in the sections for Exhibit C & subsections of C1 thru C8.

• Judicial Administration: Although Blacksburg had to pay for some Judicial Administration last year, typically Towns do not pay into those funds. That is a service provided only at the County and City level, and all citizens, whether County or Town pay for and utilize those services. The per capita costs of those for Montgomery County were $28.02, for the City of Radford it was $74.35 (see Exhibit C2 for details)
• Education: Again, this is a financial burden upon the Counties and Cities, not upon Towns. The Towns have no costs for education. In Radford the 2010 data shows $6,229,026 in expenses and Montgomery County had $98,824,370. The Towns have no money invested in the schools and they also have virtually no control over the schools. Each Town however can have a tremendous impact on school by the way in which development occurs. Large growth in specific areas can cause overcrowding of schools, require that more schools be built, require that more mobile buildings are required to provide spaces for students, can result in needing more buses or changes in bus routes which increase costs to the County. Cities are self sustaining and their growth decisions are met by their own taxpayers. (see Exhibit C6 for details)
• Treasurer & Commissioner of Revenue: These are positions which Counties and Cities are required to have, not Towns.  The Treasurer’s Office for the City of Radford had expenses of $307,556 while Montgomery County’s expenses were $1,057,518. The City of Radford’s cost for Commission of Revenue was $158,333 while Montgomery Counties was $1,585,966. (see Exhibit C1 for details)
• Exhibit C3 focuses on Public Safety Expenditures and you will see that Correction and Detention (the jail system) falls again upon City and County expenses but are not a function of Town governments.
• Exhibit C3 also gives details showing that the per capita expenses for Christiansburg are far higher than any of the neighboring jurisdictions but runs only slightly above average. Blacksburg, again we can see the skew generated by VT students being counted in the census shows about half of Christiansburg’s. The costs to taxpayer for inspections is also far higher in Christiansburg than in the other jurisdictions. And, the County and City are required to provide “Other Protection” which the Towns do not.
• Exhibit C5 shows that Health and Mental Health & Retardation services are only provided by City and County governments. If either of the two Towns invest anything at all in those areas, it is actually a donation. Yet, by and far, with the population densities of the two Towns, it could well be that the vast majority of people receiving those services live with the boundaries of the Towns.
• In Exhibit C7, note that Christiansburg has expenses for Parks and Recreation that are more than twice the per capita of any of the other jurisdictions and yet only Christiansburg shows no investment in Cultural Enrichment.
• Exhibit E shows that while all jurisdictions are eligible for state and federal grants only Radford and Blacksburg have any showing as sources of funds.

I haven’t covered all of the areas here, but I hope that you will take the time to look at the full comparison report I set up, and perhaps wander over to the APA website to look at the full reports where you can see what other Cities, Towns, and Counties are doing.

Perhaps though, I have included enough information to help people see that County and Town taxes actually cover different things. Most of what town taxes are used for go to provide town residents with services that county residents do not have or to have elective services. After all, a town police department is not a requirement, the Sheriff’s department could handle all law enforcement (and just who would pick up the tab for the extra officers and equipment?). Fire and Rescue do not have to be supported by the Town, but isn’t it nice to have them close and to have the equipment that exceeds minimal standards?

Perhaps there is enough information here to help people see what a move from Town to City status is likely to cost Town taxpayers in the long run. A lot of people want to see things done differently with the schools. Ranting at Town officials about school problems will not help to accomplish that. Take those issues to the County and the County School Board.

Lastly, perhaps it is a bit more clear that there really are no duplicate taxes for Town dwellers. I suppose you could always try to get the Town to give up Town status and just become a part of the County in order to have only 1 tax ticket, but you’d have to be willing to give up a bit of the “comforts” associated with living in a Town.

So now, it’s off to work on other projects for me. It appears that there is a huge issue with poverty in this end of the state that gets overlooked by some of our state and federal lawmakers. Poverty affects all of us because of the impact it has on education, jobs, economic development, tax revenues, etc…etc…etc.