Mosquito levy not right, not needed

In June 2006, voters defeated a tax levy for a Mosquito Control District for a variety of reasons. Now the commissioners have put the tax increase back on the ballot for November.

Voters rejected the tax increase for a variety of reasons. Many people are taxed to their limits and simply can't afford to fund another government bureaucracy.

Voters were concerned about the safety and effectiveness of a mosquito control plan and did not want to see an aerial-spray program put into effect. Some voters thought the tax was unfair and wanted people to take personal responsibility for mosquitoes near their home if they were a nuisance, rather than fund a new bureaucracy to meddle in the lives of citizens.

Other voters were worried that their property rights would be violated when chemicals were applied to their families and property without their consent, and they questioned the county's claim that your property could be entered or sprayed without your consent at any time the county wanted to.

Proponents of this new tax continues to use the exaggerated fear about the West Nile virus (WNV) to justify the tax. Eighty percent of people exposed to WNV never show a symptom; the rest exhibit mild flu-like symptoms, and less than 1 percent who show more severe symptoms are already a victim of a compromised immune system and are susceptible to illness in general.

The Center for Disease Control has said the chance you will become seriously ill from any one mosquito bite are extremely small. Once bitten by a WNV mosquito, your body develops resistance to the virus.

Taken in perspective, of the millions of people who live in or have visited Flathead County since 2004 when WNV was detected in an unvaccinated horse, two people have developed flu-like symptoms then recovered. That does not justify a new tax district.

Flathead County owns some mosquito magnets that are devices that trap and kill mosquitoes. They were purchased with tax dollars and in previous years were available for the public to use. This year, however, Flathead County, which wants to tax residents up to $179,000 in November for a mosquito control program, could not even locate the mosquito magnets, and they were not available for public use.

Also, the public was not informed of the time and location of the previous four meetings of the Mosquito Control Board.

The citizens who volunteer their time to serve on the Mosquito Control Board were not even asked if they wanted to approve a new levy request for the November ballot.

On August 21, 2006 the Flathead County commissioners approved a request for a tax levy of up to $179,000 to be placed on the Nov. 7 ballot to fund a mosquito control district.

There are no written minutes of the discussion that led to that decision. The audio recording of the meeting was incomplete, as only the first few minutes of the discussion was recorded. No members of the general public were present at the meeting.

The small portion of the meeting that was recorded made it clear that if the tax levy is defeated, the commissioners will go ahead and pay for a program to attempt to control mosquitoes, and money will come out of the Flathead County general fund.

If the commissioners were determined to attempt a control program regardless of what the voters want, why would anyone vote for higher taxes when the money is available through the general fund? Why don't the commissioners tell the voters who elected them what they have planned?

They should admit that a new tax is not necessary now, as money is available in the general fund. There is still $60,000 in a mosquito-control fund from taxpayers living in Kalispell, Evergreen and Somers, which will fund a control program in those areas for the next two years at the current rate of expenditures.

This is all the more reason for voters to vote no on Nov. 7 to fund a mosquito-control district.

I am the vice chairman of the Flathead County Mosquito Control Board, and I urge everyone to tell your friends to vote no.

McGregor Rhodes. of Kalispell, is a member of the Flathead County Mosquito Control Board.