March 25, 2025
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Executive Summary
Mosquito abatement districts (MAD) in Illinois utilize integrated pest management strategies to control mosquito populations and prevent diseases from mosquito-borne viruses such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, filariasis, encephalitis, and West Nile virus.
Mosquito abatement services can be delivered by special district governments, municipal or county public health programs, public works programs, or through contracts with private companies. In parts of Cook County, four mosquito abatement districts deliver these services: the Northshore, Desplaines Valley, Northwest, and South Cook County Mosquito districts.
This report examines the governance, transparency, and finances of the four Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts. The Civic Federation recommends that these anachronistic special-purpose governments be dissolved and absorbed into Cook County government in the same manner as the Suburban Tuberculosis Sanitarium District was nearly two decades ago.
There is no compelling reason to maintain a separate taxing body to perform a service that could be more efficiently and transparently provided by the Cook County government. Dissolving small, single-purpose local governments can reduce spending and improve efficiency by eliminating redundant management positions, tapping into the pooled resources a larger jurisdiction possesses, and accessing economies of scale for purchasing. The most important benefit, however, in consolidating local governments is that it can substantially improve accountability to citizens.
The Civic Federation offers the following key considerations and findings on the Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts:
Finances
- The Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts are funded by dedicated property tax levies, personal property replacement tax revenues (a corporate income tax), investment income, and sales of capital assets.
- The Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts collected a total of $10.7 million in revenue in fiscal year (FY) 2022.
- Approximately 85.1%, or $9.1 million, of total Cook County Mosquito Abatement District revenue was derived from property taxes. Nearly $1.5 million, 13.9% of the total, came from personal property replacement taxes. Other revenues, such as interest income, sale of capital assets, or miscellaneous revenues, accounted for just 1.0% of all revenues.
- Total FY2022 expenditures for the Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts were nearly $9.3 million. The South Cook County District reported the largest spending at $3.3 million, followed by the Northwest District at $2.6 million.
- A majority of the total FY2022 Cook County Mosquito Abatement District expenditures – 57.7%, or $5.3 million – were for personal services, including salaries and benefits. The next largest amount – 21.3% or $1.9 million – was spent on commodities, such as lab supplies, testing materials, and insecticides. Other expenditures, including contractual services and administrative expenses, constituted $1.5 million, or 16.5% of all spending.
Transparency and Accountability
- The four Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts vary in the amount of transparent information about government documents, records, and finances that is publicly available as measured by twelve key indicators. The Northshore and Northwest Districts provide the greatest degree of transparency, meeting eleven of the twelve indicators. The South Cook County Mosquito Abatement District, and the Desplaines Valley Mosquito Abatement District meet seven of the indicators.
- All districts except the South Cook District provide annual operational information on the number and types of tests conducted. Testing information for the South Cook District was last posted on its website for 2022.
- The County Office of Inspector General (OIIG) and the Chicago Sun-Times have documented unethical hiring practices, institutional mismanagement, waste, and conflicts of interest by Board of Trustee members at the South Cook County Mosquito Abatement District, the largest of the four districts.
- The OIIG’s 2021 investigation into the South Cook County District also examined concerns that the District was not meeting its public health responsibilities by failing to fulfill its statutory obligation to cooperate with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
Disparities in Mosquito Abatement Programming Among Districts
- There has been a disparity in mosquito abatement control programming among the different districts.
- In 2022, the affluent, 80-square-mile Northshore District trapped 131,804 female Culex mosquitoes known to carry West Nile virus, while the 340-square-mile South Cook District, located in an economically disadvantaged part of the County, reported that it collected only 79,848 Culex mosquitoes.
- As noted above, the 2021 OIIG report criticized the South Cook Mosquito Abatement District for a testing regime that lags those of the other districts, spends less money on vector testing and control programs, and fails to cooperate with the Illinois of Public Health.
- Based on this information, it appears that the residents of the South Cook Mosquito Abatement District have received much less service than those living in the other districts.
- The service gap between the South Cook County Mosquito District and the other districts raises concerns about the equitable application of environmental policies in Cook County for all citizens.
The Civic Federation offers the following recommendations regarding the Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts:
- The four Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts should be dissolved and their functions and taxing authority incorporated into the Cook County government. Mosquito abatement services should be delivered by the Cook County Health and Hospital System. The current individual property tax levies, totaling $9.1 million in FY2022, could be transferred to the Cook County government to fund vector control services, reduced or abolished.
- The dissolution process for the districts is relatively straightforward. It should commence as soon as possible and should reasonably be concluded within a 24-month period.
- While the ultimate long-term goal should be to dissolve the Mosquito Abatement Districts and incorporate their functions into Cook County government, this should not preclude the implementation of transparency and increased scrutiny by the Office of Inspector General in the short term. In the interim:
- All Illinois special districts, including Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts, should be required by state statute or county ordinance to make information about their finances, operations, and governmental activities publicly available on a website. Wherever this reporting is already required, there should be a mechanism to ensure enforcement.
- Legislation should be adopted that would authorize Offices of Inspector General to investigate special district governments, including mosquito abatement districts, not just their governing officials. The legislation should also require that a report of actions taken in response to the findings and recommendations of Inspector General reports be made publicly available.
Click here to read the full report.
Click here to read the one-pager.
Click here to read the press release.