County facing budget consequences

Sarasota County budgeting has begun earlier than usual, and as commissioners head into 2027 planning, they have dug themselves a spending hole. They couldn’t say “no” in 2026, and now they’re facing the consequences.

After approving last year’s budget with a 9.2% increase in general fund spending, the commission directed departments to limit 2027 budgets to just 1.6% growth. That’s turning off the full-blown spigot to a trickle in one year.

A memo sent to the commission last week details a $7.1 million gap between expected revenue and expenses for next year. Some of that is because of fixed statutory costs, but other costs were the commission’s choosing. 

Photo by Lori Sax

The capital improvement costs for operating new or upgraded facilities went up 51.9%, or $2.7 million. That’s 38% of the deficit. Non-essential capital projects could have been paused but weren’t.

If they do nothing and continue borrowing from reserves to balance the budget, they’ll be in the red in a little more than a year and a half. If they stick with the 1.6% increase, level of service cuts will likely hit county services. 

Taxpayers will have a hard time understanding how government hasn’t been living within its means when property tax values increased 5.8% last year alone.

All of this is occurring before we even talk about funding a new or expanded jail and possible property tax cuts coming from the state level.

There are other options on the table that should alarm taxpayers as well.

The county could increase the millage rate. This is highly unlikely in an election year and has rightfully been taboo in this county for decades. It would also be hard to justify given the consistent and high property tax value increases the county has seen.

County government could redo the rules around its budget projections tool to shift the numbers from what they looked like last year. This would mask the problem showing deficits in 2028.

The commission could also take one-time savings or built-in contingency money from capital projects and put them back into the general fund to temporarily boost numbers. This would get them out of the deficit temporarily but not fix the spending problem. 

The responsible thing would be to take any leftover or replaced capital money and place it into a jail fund. There has been little savings for a jail despite all commissioners saying at a recent meeting this is the county’s most important issue.

It could also create Municipal Service Taxing Units (MSTU) or Municipal Service Benefit Units (MSBU). These create special lines on your tax bills for things like law enforcement, libraries and parks.

MSTUs and MSBUs parse out services from the general fund and millage rate, setting the stage to raise taxes for those services while giving politicians cover by maintaining the general millage rate. This is dangerous because counties lose flexibility to shift money during recessions or price spikes, and it enables systematic tax increases during hard times without raising the general millage rate.

And all of this is underway before the commissioners know what they will be facing from constitutional officer budgets, which  they’ve also asked to limit to 1.6% increases. The constitutional officers are facing similar challenges with their responsibilities. What will happen with their budget gaps?

The Feb,. 26 workshop is going to require leadership, responsibility and difficult decisions that could have been avoided or eased with some spending discernment. Taxpayers should pay  attention and weigh in on how commissioners are managing the budget.

Christine Robinson is executive director of the Argus Foundation and a former Sarasota County commissioner.