Dream on
What a wonderful contribution your new supplement FLOW is to the well-being of our community! Dreams can definitely be an important avenue to personal growth, and I am glad you interviewed me and others on the topic in C-VILLE [“Vision quest,” FLOW, January 27]. I want to underline here the value of dream work beyond just analysis and understanding of any particular dream interpretation.
Dreams are an avenue to both higher levels of consciousness and deeper levels of relatedness. Everyone dreams several dreams every night. By having the intention to remember our dreams, we can use them to improve our relationships in daily life. Noting the people that appear in our dreams gives us the opportunity to pay attention to those relationships in a way that can enhance them in waking life. We may notice what part of ourselves they represent and then be more able to empathize with them. Some unrealized or unspoken feelings about someone may be revealed that can then be useful or shared with that person directly or in fantasy.
A dream is a uniquely personal experience that, when shared, is a precious gift from one person to another. As a clinical psychologist and dream worker, both personally and professionally I have received incredible value from sharing and working on dreams with my clients, family and friends, both individually and in groups. I hope that more people will take advantage of this great resource now that it has been brought to our attention through the FLOW supplement. Enjoy and dream on!
Phyllis Koch-Sheras
Albemarle County
Taxing patience
Last year I drafted a letter to the editor that expressed the view that the citizens of Charlottesville were not well served by a monopoly on power and that Rob Schilling, the lone Republican, was right to suggest that the entire budget process needs more discipline [Mailbag, July 8, 2003].
Charlottesville has now embarked upon a new budget cycle and the new property assessments have just been mailed. It is time to clear the fog surrounding the real estate tax issue.
Whenever assessments on real property would result in an increase of 1 percent or more of the total tax revenues, Virginia law requires the city to lower the tax rate to a level that brings the actual revenue collections within this legal ceiling. (See Virginia Code Section 58.1-3321). However, the law permits City Council to increase the tax rate above this legal ceiling, provided public notice is given and Council finds that the tax increase is necessary.
Last year this law required City Council to set a maximum tax levy of $0.995. The City published legal notice of its intent to raise the tax levy to $1.09 and held a public hearing on April 7, 2003. Schilling, alone among the councilors, correctly pointed out that a vote to set the tax levy at $1.09 was, by law, a tax increase, not a tax decrease. The other councilors did not even acknowledge that it was a tax increase and thus made no effort to justify the increase as necessary.
Moreover, for each of the past five years, City Council has voted to raise real estate taxes by 4.42 percent, 5.51 percent, 6.98 percent, 8.6 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively. This year we can expect another tax increase of about 12 percent, with Belmont residents bearing a disproportionate share of the increase. With our population virtually constant and the five-year average rate of inflation holding at about 2.5 percent, such huge tax increases do not seem justified.
The current City Council, steeped in old habits and unaccustomed to a voice in opposition, is unlikely to impose serious budget discipline as long as we permit them to perpetuate the myth that they are not raising taxes. If you own your home and are concerned about these increases in your property taxes, you do not need to go to Richmond to lobby for a constitutional amendment. You simply need to appear before City Council and insist that they comply with existing Virginia law.
Charles Weber, Jr.
Charlottesville