Inflation hits residents’ wallets from all angles

JIM RIDOLPHI Contributing Columnist

of tax actually levied on citizens.

know the meaning of, much less how to pronounce them, and the nerd in me enjoys the random education each year.

Before I dive into my annual exercise in lexigraphy (the art or practice of defining words), I want to give a special shout out to Sita Lewis, an eighth grader at Chickahominy Middle School, who represented Hanover County in the spelling bee admirably, making it to the eighth round. Excellent job Sita!

Also as a point of reference, the winning word this year, spelled correctly in the 30th round by a Charlotte County middle schooler, was barometer.

Depending on a child’s age and experience with spelling bees, it is always interesting to see how they approach their turn. Do they hear the word once and plunge in or go all out, asking for the lan- guage of origin, a definition and for it to be used in a sentence?

Many of the words might seem obvious, but the trickery that is homonyms at times makes asking some of those questions critical. For example, in the same bee, contestants were asked to spell wield (to use especially with full command or power) and weald (a heavily wooded area). No discernable difference in how they are pronounced.

Alternate spellings can also be tricky, and in the case of this bee, extremely important. One speller was asked to spell caboodle (the way we saw it in our binders), which is simply a collection or lot. She spelled it as kaboodle and received the ding of the bell signifying she was wrong. She and her parents challenged it, and since the MerriamWebster entry for kaboodle simply says “variant

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Classifieds cindy adams ..........................................cadams@mechlocal.com spelling of caboodle,” she re-entered the bee. By the way, the young lady, JoyDen Wilson of Charlotte County, went on to win the bee.

The silly side of me always enjoys the silly sounding words, and there were plenty. I knew most of the ones that caught my eye: dillydally (to act with an unusual or improper slowness); flimflammer (one that gains his way by trickery and expedients); and codswallop (nonsense or drivel). I don’t know why hooroosh (a wild, hurried or excited state or situation) tickled my fancy, but I have always been honest with our readers about my nerdiness, and I am not going to stop now.

A large number of the words I wasn’t familiar with are tied to plants (absolutely not my wheelhouse) and

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that American families are undergoing increasing financial pressures in their everyday lives with well documented increases in cost of living expenses. Paychecks don’t go as far as they used to, and it seems every staple in our lives comes at an inflated price.

Most of us are living under these pressures, struggling to balance household budgets and searching for any way to stretch the dollar.

A recent report cited evidence that taxes have remained relatively steady during this period of inflation. But, anyone who regularly visits a grocery store will tell you that it’s not the taxes you see that have the most impact on households. It’s the ones you can’t see.

For example, reported local real estate taxes are level or reduced throughout most of the Commonwealth, but that’s not a true indicator of the amount

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Real estate assessments are experiencing significant increases and most taxpayers are receiving higher bills on their properties, resulting in increases in revenue for communities. Now, that’s not technically an increase in real estate taxes, but in reality, it’s a segment of local budgets that have endured steady increases for the past several years.

For localities, the increased revenues are good news and allow communities to fund important services like fire, rescue and public welfare. The additional funds also allow localities to provide competitive compensation for the people who staff those important positions. Many communities are finding it more difficult to attract and retain good employees as demand for their services increase.

It’s a sort of doubleedged sword for citizens who benefit from quality

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