Diplomacy is an intriguing concept. Sometimes I’ll see someone who looks to have the pot-bellied shape that I do, and I’ll ask Linda, “Is my belly as big as that guy’s?” No matter how big the character might be, she always responds, “On no honey, I’m sure his is bigger, he’s just sucking it in.”

But then so am I.

Diplomacy is a wonderful tool that we all use, whether we realize it or not. Smiling as you tell someone about how they have somehow wronged you. Being cordial, though you really want to give a person a piece of you mind, and not the good part. Laughing off a hurtful joke or telling your friend that plaid and paisley look great on her, especially when she wears them together.

This skillful handling of situations has kept human beings from annihilating one another many times. But then, there’s been too many times when diplomacy just hasn’t worked out. And then there’s been other times when we just don’t try hard enough.

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. Negotiation. I like the idea of negotiating instead of just going ahead with something, say a bill or a budget, and ramming it through because your ideology pushes you to do so.

It will be interesting this week to watch how the General Assembly negotiates the budget. There’s a Senate budget and a House of Delegates budget and they’re not alike. The Senate budget has user fees to make up some of the budget shortfall and the Delegates are borrowing from the VRS (Virginia Retirement System) to make up at least $500 million of the shortage. It’s funny how there’s a little spin thrown in during the lead up to the negotiations.

The House side contends that it will offer no taxes or fees in its budget. No, not like those guys in the Senate, who would raise fees on court costs.  No, the House would just borrow from the retirees’ funds. But when things get better, they will pay it back or make it right. Hmm, I wonder if there will be interest paid as well. Fees or a loan; what’s the best for us? Or should I say, our children?

At best, we will still end up accepting less quality education and drastic reductions in services. In Chesterfield, we have already decided not to raise real estate taxes, so it’s a done deal. We should prepare for long-term consequences.

Chesterfield has decided to go the same route as the state and cut education and services. But we still don’t know how deep the state cuts will be. Now we wait on what the state will do. How much more will have to be cut from services? How many more jobs will need to be cut once the final state numbers are known? How many teachers and school activities will be left standing?

I’m so excited that I will be saving $7.95 a month on my real estate tax bill here in Chesterfield. Last week the Board of Supervisors advertised the real estate tax rate to be set not higher than 95 cents per $100 of our real estate value. That’s the same rate I paid last year, but the value of my real estate dropped by about 5 percent. So I’m in for a whopping savings of $95 a year. Big whoop.

In the meantime, Chesterfield County government will lose my $95 a year in addition to the 5 percent in real estate tax revenue they lost already due to declining real estate values.

Multiply that by the 60-some thousand households in the county and you’re looking at real money. My good friend says “cut until they bleed.” I think that with this loss of revenue comes a loss of jobs, contracts and services, and any business that serves the county beast will also lose.

Typically, jobs mean the person who holds the job spends his pay check in the community, supporting local business, paying taxes on his pay check and his purchases. Money likes to go round and round; as he spends his paycheck locally, the local business can afford to keep or hire employees who pay taxes and spend their money in the community, and so on.

This helps sustain the local economy. If you begin forcing layoffs at the largest employer in Chesterfield, you begin the circle game.

Since the negotiating is all but over, all we can do is smile, bow our heads like Akio Toyoda, and shuffle off until next year.