Tax Hike Will Fund Mosquito Abatement

Fillmore is the first city in Ventura County to agree to a property tax increase in a bid to save the county’s mosquito abatement program, a county official said.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 to authorize the $1.12-per-parcel increase, which could take affect for the 1993-94 fiscal year.

Councilmen Roger Campbell and Scott Lee dissented.

The loss of state funding has jeopardized the existence of the Ventura County Environmental Health Division’s Vector Control Services, program manager Bob Gallagher said.

Without the abatement program, Gallagher said the county’s mosquito population would explode, endangering residents with possible outbreaks of encephalitis, which is carried by mosquitoes.

The Board of Supervisors has the power to enact the tax increase, but each city must consent to the special levy, City Manager Roy Payne said.

If one of the larger cities does not agree to the tax increase, Gallagher said the program would likely cease. “We’d look for money elsewhere, but it would be tough getting it,” he said.

Vector Control Services has three employees that cover the county inspecting and treating mosquito breeding areas such as pools of stagnant water, Gallagher said. Four part-time helpers supplement the staff between May and October.

In dissenting at the council meeting last week, Campbell said cities are increasingly being asked to raise taxes to make up for state budget woes. “It just keeps adding up,” he said.

Other cities are expected to vote on the levy later this month or in early April, Payne said.