In medical terms, flat-lining is the loss of a heartbeat or brain waves.
In income terms, it means any cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) or step-increases are out paced by other expenses. Such as utilities, gasoline, medical insurance, food. Education or retirement saving? Borrow or be ready to beg. It may also have meant finding a new job, over the last couple of years possibly one that pays less than before, offering less in benefits. Or absorbing a furlough while remaining thankful you still have employment.
In tax terms, flat-lining means -- well it depends.
Those elected to the national arena don't want to increase taxes on the majority of individuals -- that's the people earning less than a quarter million a year. "Read my lips, no new taxes" didn't translate into reality very well. Those elected at the state level don't want to increases taxes, even to the point they eliminate or reduce funding levels.
A great example is the state lottery, meant to increase funding for public education. Instead, what's been reality is a syphoning off of funding -- reducing the general funds amount and replacing it with lottery proceeds.
Another example is the infamous car tax, where the state stripped localities of one of the limited options (beyond real or personal property) for generating tax revenues. For services that are not fully funded by federal or state taxes, yet may be mandated (required) services.
All governments proclaim they are running as efficiently as possible, having cut the fat, cut into muscle, and now ready for amputation. Well, guess what. So have households, individuals and business -- there's a nasty cycle of recessions for an entire generation now, and the cycles seem to run faster and shorter.
Here in Montgomery County, as elsewhere, there is the need to reach out and ask citizens -- taxpayers -- what they are willing to do with less of, where to cut.
Both the County and the Town of Christiansburg can "tweak" their tax rates for property. That's land (real estate) and personal (vehicles, boats, etc.).
County Board of Supervisors have unanimously gotten behind the idea of changing the formula for assessing personal taxes, and since Christiansburg generally follows their lead town residents should brace for a double (or quadruple) whammy.
Land owners are still waiting to see their new "reassessed" property values. This puts pressure on rents, too.
Sure, there are some assumptions here because Christiansburg's leaders have yet to begin public dialog about fiscal year 2010-2011. They have just five meetings before election time to do so. The process doesn't seem to have changed much from year's past, beginning with two council members meeting with the Town Manager and his assistants, now that a Finance Director/Treasurer was hired.
According to information provided at public meetings about town finances, council itself doesn't receive even quarterly snap shots on how the current fiscal year is being managed -- comparing revenue collections to expenses. The town's budget documents do little to enlighten citizens about these details, so a better source of how funds were managed and used may be found at the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (APA) website.
If you've cut and scrimped, changed your savings plans, reduced spending -- and still see it is getting more difficult to stay afloat, much less get ahead -- what will you go without so that Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and Town of Christiansburg Town Council members can balance their own budgets?
It's enough to make a body flat-line.