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Inyo skeeter abatement to continue with slight tax hike |
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Friday, 05 June 2009 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
6-4-09 With no public comments on the matter, Inyo County has the go-ahead to continue its mosquito abatement program.
Continuing the county’s mosquito abatement and mosquito control and disease prevention program will cost property owners an additional 2 cents per year.
According to Inyo County Agricultural Commissioner George Milovich, that’s a .13 percent increase from last year.
“This is a very minimal change and it doesn’t equal the increase in costs,” Milovich, adding that the Board of Supervisors’ approval on Tuesday will allow the mosquito abatement program “to continue on as we have in previous years.”
Since 1998, the Owens Valley Mosquito Abatement Program Assessment and Mosquito Control and Disease Prevention Assessment have been levied annually to provide revenue needed to fund the mosquito abatement projects and services.
The assessments for the Mosquito Control and Disease Prevention program includes an annual increase equal to the change in the Los Angeles area consumer price index, but will not increase more than 3 percent without a balloting process and a vote of the people.
Each year the assessment is open to public scrutiny via a Board of Supervisors public hearing.
This year, the change in the L.A. area consumer price index was .11 percent.
According to Milovich, the proposed assessment for fiscal year 2009-10 for the Owens Valley Mosquito Abatement program is a fixed fee of $20.80 per single-family equivalent. That’s 2 cents more this year over last year. The tax is estimated to generate approximately $205,348 this year.
The proposed assessment for the Mosquito Control and Disease Prevention Assessment is $20.78 per single family equivalent with an estimated total annual revenue of $177,440.
Fourth District Supervisor Marty Fortney asked if the Mosquito Abatement Program has the ability to deal with other pesky bugs on its budget.
He said, specifically, there is a problem with bees swarming throughout the Owens Valley in the summer months, which could be hazardous with the appearance of Africanized honey bees.
Milovich said his Mosquito Abatement crew does not handle bee swarms unless they are aggressive. He added that the Owens Valley has had a few Africanized honey bee sightings – three in Lone Pine, two in Big Pine and one in Independence – but that species has not been able to weather the winter, and tends to die off each year.
“Africanized bees don’t make it through the winter here, so we only get a couple swarms in the summer, and we’ve trained every fire department to handle those,” Milovich said. “We try to mitigate other pest bugs by setting up traps and fogging. We do get involved when we get complaints.”
The tax increase will go into affect at the beginning of the fiscal year.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 10 July 2009 )
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