The OC Vector Control District wants to raise property taxes to pay for a museum exhibit

The OC Vector Control District’s Trustees never tire of raising your property taxes!

From the OC Politics Blog

Today, the Orange County Vector Control District’s Board of Trustees “will consider contracting with the Discovery Science Center for a decade of exhibit space costing $1 million – averaging out to $100,000 a year,” according to the O.C. Register’s Watchdog.

Naturally, the OVCD’s staff is recommending a hike of about $1 a parcel that would bring in some $500,000 annually to pay for this exhibit.  They want to raise our property taxes even though the OCVCD is awash in cash – they have a cushion of almost 70 percent of what it spends in a year.

As we suggested in a recent post, this is the epitome of a bloated County agency that really should be absorbed into the OC Health Care Agency – and all of their field spraying and extermination activities should be outsourced to contractors.  This agency owes millions of dollars in unfunded pension and health benefit liabilities that we could avoid further via outsourcing!

What is driving all of these ridiculous actions by the OCVCD?  The West Nile Virus – this is their latest bogeyman.  They used to harp about the Fire Ants , in fact nearly half of the OCVCD’s budget – $4.1 million – comes from the per-parcel assessment approved by voters in 2004 to combat fire ants.

The OCVCD told the Watchdog that, “As of Sept. 13, O.C. had logged 127 infections and three deaths from West Nile virus, which is carried by mosquitoes. The hardest hit city has been in Santa Ana, with 48 infections.”

As we have reported before, the Center for Disease Control says that:

Fortunately, most people infected with WNV will have no symptoms. About 1 in 5 people who are infected will develop a fever with other symptoms. Less than 1% of infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, neurologic illness.

As for the cases in Santa Ana, it turns out that the reason Santa Ana has had more West Nile Virus infections is not their population at large but rather one specific demographic – the homeless as we reported here.  They sleep outside and as such are exposed to mosquito bites more than the rest of us.

The non-profit Community Action Partnership of Orange County distributed 2,600 packets of insect repellent on Saturday and Sunday, during the Fiestas Patrias event in Downtown Santa Ana, to protect the homeless at the Civic Center, last weekend.

The OCVCD paid for those packets – and that was actually a good way to spend our tax money.  The question is why didn’t they focus on the homeless in the first place instead of threatening to spray homes in Santa Ana’s inner city?

The reality is that OC Vector Control does this sort of thing periodically to justify their massive budget.  And now they want more of our money.

I must call BS on that!  We need to contact the OC Board of Supervisors and the OCVCD Trustees and make this an election year issue!  This agency needs to go away, the sooner the better.

Two of the 35 OC Vector Control District Trustees

Now here is more bad news.  The OCVCD’s Board of Trustees is a scary collection of squishy RINOs and Democrats including these OC politicians:

• Phil Tsunoda, Aliso Viejo City Councilman (Democrat)
• Roy Moore, Brea City Councilman (RINO)
• Wendy Leece, Costa Mesa Councilwoman (RINO)
• Jan Flory, Fullerton City Councilwoman (Democrat)
• Beth Krom, Irvine City Councilwoman (Democrat)
• Dave Leckness, Mission Viejo City Council (Former Democrat now a RINO)
• Cecilia Aguinaga, City of Santa Ana (Democrat)
• Sergio Contreras, Westminster City Council (Democrat)

Here is the contact info for our OC Board of Supervisors:

• Chairman of the OC BOS Shawn Nelson – Email.  714.834.3440.
• Supervisor Pat Bates – Email. 714.834.3550.
• Supervisor Janet Nguyen – Email.  714.834.3110. (She is running for the 34th State Senate District!)
• Supervisor John Moorlach – Email.  714.834-3220. (Terming out but he is on the OCVCD’s Board of Trustees)
• Supervisor Todd Spitzer – Email.  714.834-3330