State Government: RIFA: Ant Tax

An "Ant tax" will be Governor Davis’ legacy

By Stephen J. Corona
President, Riverside County Farm Bureau

The "ant tax" may become California Governor Gray Davis’ legacy to the west coast.

This isn’t a tax that was voted in by legislators or by taxpayers. It’s not in the tax code. But it is coming — sooner or later — to your neighborhood. It will come in many forms, as a hidden tax in new costs to your local government, perhaps as a real tax on the ballot, and certainly as an indirect tax to you and every individual in California who will eventually face the source of the problem: Red Imported Fire Ant.

It’s too bad, too, because I think Governor Davis wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t seem to understand the long-term consequences of decisions being made under his authority. Those decisions affect not only California but citizens in neighboring states

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has announced its plan to deal with Red Imported Fire Ant. While the plan has many good points, it’s clear that it is doomed to failure. Facing a supposedly invincible pest, CDFA created a plan that lets local governments create their own "community-based, environmentally-sensitive" plans ... in practice, to do their own thing. No amount of coordination and cooperation can take the place of a comprehensive, concentrated eradication program controlled by CDFA.

How much this program will cost and who will pay the bill remains an uncertainty. Senator John Lewis is carrying Senate Bill 204 to provide a total of $5 million for "those costs that are incurred by the state or by local entities" in an eradication effort. CDFA offered a scientific wild guess that eradication could cost somewhere between $8 million and $100 million annually. Local governments may not be willing to attempt eradication unless fully funded by the state. Without money, nothing happens.

The state plan calls for CDFA to work with local governments in "obtaining funding." This suggests local governments will be expected to provide at least part of the money for eradication, perhaps resurrecting Riverside County proposals for a vector control tax.

S. B. 204 also requires a county’s Board of Supervisors to designate "one local entity" to receive state funds. How will other local governments be reimbursed? While county supervisors can designate the entity to receive funds, the state plan says "CDFA and the county agricultural commissioner will conduct the eradication program" but goes on to say "each individual city and/or county entity would be responsible" to formulate plans for eradication. It’s a confusing, contradictory and entirely uncoordinated plan.

Other states give some idea of what Californians face. The University of Arkansas reports that "$265/household was lost to fire ants." California agriculture will suffer. Texas A&M University said, "Fire ants do an estimated $300 million dollars in damage annually" to agriculture. Since California agriculture is more than twice as big as Texas ag production, California could face even bigger costs ... year after year.

The state is ambivalent about the goal of eradication. Resources Secretary Mary Nichols said her agency would cooperate to "control it, contain it, beat it back," but she never used the word "eradicate." Agriculture Secretary Bill Lyons said, "We’re going to contain it and try to eradicate it." The state plan notes "the CDFA assessment is that the possibility of eradication is low and will be very difficult to achieve." With an expect-to-fail attitude, the state is already planning to fail rather than to succeed. However, the Science Advisory Panel to the state said, based on CDFA’s past successes in eradicating exotic pests, eradication of fire ant "appears possible" and panel member Dr. Dave Williams said, "CDFA should attempt eradication."

Environmental sensitivity is an issue that cuts both ways. The University of Minnesota reports, "In rural habitats, fire ants have a major impact on ground nesting animals from insects to reptiles to birds to mammals. The arrival of imported fire ants into an ecosystem wrecks havoc on the local ecological community" and "in some instances, the depredation by fire ants has completely eliminated some species from an ecosystem." Riverside County may no longer have to worry about Stephens’ kangaroo rats, California gnatcatchers, Delhi sands flies or Quino checkerspot butterflies, because Red Imported Fire Ant may simply eradicate them, unless California eradicates the fire ants first.

Agriculture has unfairly been blamed for spread of fire ants. In fact, state inspection stations have found fire ants on thousands of vehicles coming into California over the past decade, on construction equipment, recreation vehicles and household goods. The state fire ant plan cites the potential spread of fire ants by "significant soil movement for commercial development, construction or flood control." The plan outlines a long-overdue program to strengthen pest detection and exclusion.

A community-based eradication plan has a major weakness: if any community chooses not to attempt eradication or does an incomplete job, the plan will fail. Unless the Red Imported Fire Ant is completely eradicated throughout California, it will eventually occupy the entire state and neighboring states. If California is committed to eradication, CDFA should assume direct control of the program and get the job done.

The state plan shields Governor Davis from criticism: it limits the immediate impact of fire ants, gives money to affected local governments (keeping local officials quiet), and stalls for time. After five years, the state can blame failure on the invincible fire ant and on local government eradication programs that weren’t adequate. There will be so many agencies sharing responsibility, it will be hard to blame one agency or official, particularly Governor Davis. Even better for Governor Davis, the fire ant spreads slowly. Even if he wins a second term, Governor Davis is likely to be out of office long before fire ants are stinging a majority of his constituents.

Governor Davis must take responsibility for the success or failure of the fire ant eradication program. He has made it clear that he controls decisions by the agencies and by the appointed officials within his administration. Right now the state’s fire ant eradication plan is designed to fail. Unless Governor Davis takes action to replace it with an effective, state-funded program to eradicate Red Imported Fire Ant, he has imposed a permanent "ant tax" on everyone in California.