County struggles to balance budget this summer

Money is tight right now in Sarasota County, after the commission voted not to raise taxes for the 2018 fiscal year. Instead, it elected to use $5.4 million in reserves to balance the budget initially, and revisit the problem over the first quarter of the year to find an equivalent amount to cut from different departments.

When budget deliberations began in June, County Administrator Tom Harmer and his staff presented a budget that included a slight increase to property tax rates, and a new 5% tax on public utilities for residents in unincorporated parts of the county.

However, as the deliberations went on through September, several commissioners were reluctant to raise taxes. First, they chose not to increase the millage rate. Then, they chose not to levy a new tax, instead opting to locate the money elsewhere in the budget — currently, the economic uncertainty fund, but soon from the departmental allocations.

Commissioner Al Maio suggested that fix, and has emphasized several times since the importance of proceeding in a “calm and deliberate” way.

Although they both voted to approve the budget in September, commissioners Charles Hines and Nancy Detert voiced concerns about the impending budget shortfalls.

“Without [raising taxes], we’re really running this county very, very thin,” Hines said. “As we go forward through October, this is going to be very, very difficult.” 

“We voted against an increase in revenue. We have to start looking at what we can’t do this year.”

Detert agreed with Hines, and mentioned that property taxes haven’t been raised in Sarasota County for 17 years.

“We voted against an increase in revenue,” she said. “We have to start looking at what we can’t do this year.”

Commissioners originally wanted to rebuild the economic uncertainty fund in preparation for the next economic downturn, but that did not happen this year with the decision not to increase taxes. As they try to conduct normal business, commissioners are already feeling the strains of a tight budget.

In a discussion about conducting an after-action review for the response to Hurricane Irma:

“I’m just not interested in paying a consultant to tell us what we did right or wrong,” Detert said at an Oct. 11 commission meeting. “If you all have the time and money, you’re on a different planet than me frankly.”

In conversations about parking solutions on Siesta Key:

“That may be a timing issue,” County Administrator Tom Harmer said when Detert asked if the county has money to proceed with a parking project on Siesta Key.

And after a presentation about the possibility of building a new jail facility:

“We’re in the middle of budgeting, so I would say after we’ve firmed up our budget and we know if we have two cents leftover,” Detert said about when the commission could further discuss the future of the Sarasota County Jail.

The fiscal year started Oct. 1. So far, some suggestions for cuts have been to delay capital projects or examine revenue possibilities with surplus land in the county, but no decisions have been made yet.

Ultimately, in the next fiscal year, the total budget cuts will have to equal more than $11 million — the same amount a tax on public utilities would have raised every year after fiscal year 2018.