WBRZ - Baton Rouge

DENHAM SPRINGS- Mosquitoes in Livingston Parish are on the attack.

"Worst I've ever seen. They're really bad," says Wayne Sibley.

Fighting those pesky bugs comes with a hefty price. Funding to support the parish abatement is low, because some people are not paying their abatement fees.

"It is a legitimate tax," says Livingston Parish Abatement manager Jeanine Tessmer. "It is to be assessed and everybody is obligated to pay it. With that said, not necessarily everybody does pay it."

About 45,000 homes should be paying the $30 a year tax, but about only 30,000 are, and the abatement is feeling the loss.

"If everybody was paying it, we would be receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.2 million a year. As it stands, we're getting about $900,000," says Tessmer.

More money could be in the abatement's future if a proposition on the November ballot is approved.

"It wouldn't require someone to sit down and make a decision to write a check to mail to us, it would be just included with their other property taxes," she said.

The Livingston Parish Abatement says these fees could help keep people healthy and save lives.

"The more mosquitoes we can get rid of, the lower the possibility of someone getting bit by an infected mosquito," says Tessmer.

Residents living in Livingston Parish, agree.

"The only way to fight that is through the control of the mosquitoes, and that's through the mosquito abatement," says Sibley.

Residents in Livingston Parish vote on the proposition on November 6th.