The decision that leaders in Congress make about a fiscal cliff will effect how money flows in the Shenandoah Valley. Delegates and business owners want to know what's going to happen.

"The big word is uncertainty," says Delegate Beverly Sherwood. She is one of the delegates who will be heading to Richmond in January to talk about the local economy and the questions that lie ahead. "We have to base our revenues on forecast. We don't just spend money that we have, we actually try to forecast where we think we're going to be to formulate our budget."

William Buettin is the Market President of United Bank. "Richmond is doing much better than the nation as a whole. I think Richmond, if they could focus on trying to convey to Washington what needs to be done here in Winchester and in the State of Virginia, we're going to be in a much better spot." He says because we don't know what tax and budget cuts will be, the market is unpredictable. "So, in the business world we really need to know what to project and how to forecast for the future to make decisions that make sense for our businesses."

He says things have improved over the past five years, but they're not where they need to be. The transition is slow. "Before it was just like, how do I make it through this? Now it's, how do I make it to the next level."

Sherwood says Virginia could be one of the states most effected by the decision about a "fiscal cliff," especially when it comes to the Commonwealth's tie to government contracts. "The budget we've put together the last two years were some very conservative numbers. I think we're sitting pretty well. As well as we can expect to sit right now with the challenges that are ahead of us."

Buettin says there are sure signs of recovery in the Shenandoah Valley, but pockets of the area are still struggling. "No matter what the outcome of the debt ceiling discussion is or the fiscal cliff, we need to have an answer so we can decide what to do next. The worst outcome is doing nothing."