In 2016, a groundskeeper at Pinecrest Gardens sprayed a pesticide to kill mosquitoes to help control a Zika virus outbreak.
Gaston De Cardenas Miami Herald
Miami
When Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava launched a campaign this week to oppose November’s ballot proposal to cut property taxes, she warned that the decrease in local government revenue “threatens everything from public safety and emergency response to our roads, parks, our libraries.”
She’s correct — property taxes fund big-ticket items such as police and fire, among others. But here’s another item that might be on the chopping block but doesn’t get the same buzz: mosquito control.
At least 60% of voters must approve Amendment 3 to increase Florida’s homestead exemption on primary homes from $50,000 to $250,000 by 2028. If that happens, the mayor expects the county’s mosquito control program to lose $1 million of a budget that’s projected to be $13.6 million in 2026-27.
That number looks small when you consider that Amendment 3 would eliminate an estimated 20% of the $3 billion Miami-Dade collects in property taxes annually, the Herald reported. But the county already underfunds mosquito control compared to places like the Florida Keys, Phil Goodman, a representative of the Florida Mosquito Control Association, told the Herald Editorial Board.
South Florida is essentially a big swamp and mosquitos aren’t just a nuisance that ruin outdoor activities. They are a public-health concern. Among the viruses they can spread: Zika, dengue, chikungunya.
For voters, reducing mosquito control may seem like a reasonable trade-off for lower taxes, and if you look at it in isolation, maybe. But consider how Amendment 3 would force local governments to chip away — at varying degrees, depending on each community — at other programs such as parks, libraries and animal shelters.
Maybe it’s fewer sheriff’s deputies who are hired or fewer fire trucks purchased. Perhaps some parks and libraries close or reduce operating hours or eliminate after-school programs. Social services for the elderly could be hit with cuts. The waiting time to obtain a building permit may increase if county hall layoffs take place. And we cannot forget that 9% of Miami-Dade’s property taxes go toward Jackson Health, the county’s public hospital system, according to a Herald analysis.
It’s undeniable that Floridians need financial relief, and property taxes in South Florida have risen as the result of skyrocketing housing values. More local governments could have responded by lowering the tax rate, which Miami-Dade did, by 1%, two years in a row. Or the Republican-led Legislature could have created a measured approach to cutting taxes. Instead, it delivered a ballot proposal without studying its impacts. That leaves it to voters to decide: Do they sacrifice local services in exchange for a tax break?
Few people have to think about mosquito control these days — that is, until there’s a mosquito-borne disease outbreak, such as Miami’s Zika outbreak a decade ago, shutting down businesses and impacting tourism. The virus arrived in South Florida primarily from parts of the Caribbean where Zika is endemic, a 2017 study published in the Nature journal found. Miami is a hub for travelers from that region and has the mosquito that can spread the virus.
During a 1934 dengue fever outbreak, an estimated 10% of Dade County’s population was infected. Outbreaks like that are no longer common because of modern research and equipment to keep mosquitos at bay. There are currently about 40 cases of locally transmitted dengue fever in Florida, Goodman said. Although 30 of them are in Hillsborough County, Miami remains a concern.
“I think Miami-Dade has been the center in Florida for… mosquito-borne diseases for the last 10 years,” said Goodman, who’s also chairman of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District Board. “You have cases every year of dengue fever and Zika… they are coming in from these travel-related cases from all over South and Central America.”
Florida counties usually fund mosquito control through property taxes. Smaller and rural counties that stand to lose the most revenue from Amendment 3 would be forced to make deeper cuts than Miami-Dade. But mosquitos don’t respect county lines. If Amendment 3 is approved, Florida may soon learn whether communities can control their spread on the cheap.
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