Another ballot measure hit mailboxes this week asking county
property owners to tax themselves to support expanded
disease-fighting operations by the Santa Clara County Vector
Control District.
Another ballot measure hit mailboxes this week asking county property owners to tax themselves to support expanded disease-fighting operations by the Santa Clara County Vector Control District.
The ballot has been sent to property owners only and needs 50 percent plus one vote to pass. However, the new assessment will only take effect if it’s also approved by the county board of supervisors.
“Because property owners are the ones who will have to pay for it, they get to make the decision,” said Kriss Costa, community resource specialist for vector control. “If voters decide they don’t want it, the board of supervisors will carry it no further.”
The measure is the second countywide all-mail ballot this year and comes a week after two measures to boost property taxes for the county library system split at the polls. Voters overwhelmingly approved Measure A, which reinstated a 10-year $33.66 library tax. Measure B, which would have levied an additional $12, failed narrowly.
This ballot measure would assess an additional $8.36 annually on top of the current standard assessment of $5.08, which began in 1996. If it passes, the assessment will raise $4 million annually for the district, which now receives $2.7 million a year through property taxes and has a budget of $3.3 million. County supervisors approved the ballot which will cost the district about $300,000.
“We’ve had a flat budge since [1996],” Costa said. “To maintain current levels of service and enhance disease surveillance control we need this money. This is our only source of funding.”
Costa said the money would be used for year-round mosquito and rodent control and disease prevention, particularly West Nile Virus. She said vector control has already identified eight cases of the mosquito-borne, potentially fatal illness in birds, mostly in the Almaden and Willow Glen areas of San Jose.
“Mosquitoes are way up,” Costa said. “Even though our technicians are taking care of creeks and marshes, every time it rains, they have to be treated again. And we’re picking up a lot of mosquitoes in residential areas.”
VC snapshot
• Tests and treats stagnant water
• Education and prevention programs for residents
• Disease surveillance in ticks and rodents
• Vector Control has 32 employees. No South County office.
• Web site: www.sccvector.org/
