Mosquito district tax fails to pass

Property owners in Sonoma and Marin counties rejected a property tax increase that would have gone toward abatement of mosquitoes and other pests.|

Property owners in Sonoma and Marin counties rejected a property tax increase that would have gone toward abatement of mosquitoes and other pests. The increase, which would have raised $3.59 million annually for the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District, failed to pass by a slim 51 percent to 49 percent after ballots were weighted by the size of the property of each voter.

The district announced the results at a meeting last week. The assessment would have raised property taxes by $12 per year for a single-family home. The district said it needed the additional revenue to pay for essential services like controlling mosquitoes and monitoring them for West Nile virus and other diseases. Critics said the money would go toward the agency’s $3.95 million unfunded pension liability.

The district board last week passed a cost-cutting budget, prepared in case the tax assessment failed, that eliminates two positions from the staff of 32, although those positions could be added back at a future board meeting.

“The austerity budget is what we passed,” said Steve Ayala, Petaluma’s representative on the board. “We were counting on the revenue, but we knew it might not pass.”

Ayala said that the district will also have to forgo buying new vehicles. It will continue providing services, but at a reduced rate, he said.

“The district will survive,” he said. “I don’t know what form it will take now that we can’t get the income. We can’t not control mosquitoes. We most definitely will have to reduce services.”

The legal firm Gilardi & Co. tabulated the 66,666 votes that were cast out of 213,000 that the district mailed to property owners.

District manager Phil Smith said that the agency is on a 17-year plan to pay off it’s unfunded pension liability, but could have done that sooner with additional revenue.

“If the assessment had passed, we could have accelerated the retirement of the liability,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a little disappointing from staff’s perspective. It will cause us to redouble our efforts to deliver the best level of service with the limited funds.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @MattBrownAC.)

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