Early start gets Sarasota leaders thinking about the next budget

It’s early in the budget cycle for Sarasota County — closer to the first day of 2026’s spending plan than the last — but elected officers from constitutional departments last week nevertheless presented preliminary projections for 2027.

Picking up where Sarasota County commissioners left off last summer, the sheriff, tax collector, elections supervisor, clerk of court and property appraiser each delivered assessments on how close they thought they’d come to hitting spending goals set in August.

The earlier-than-normal opening of budget season coincides with a raised level of concern about budget balancing, as required by state law. In 2025, the first workshop on budget matters happened in late March, about a month later than last week’s meeting. And constitutional officers generally don’t make budget requests until late spring. But a memo to the commission in February from county staff details a potential $7.1 million gap between expected revenue and expenses for fiscal year 2027, raising the stakes.

After approving last year’s budget with a 9.2% increase in general fund spending, the commission asked departments last year to limit 2027 budgets to 1.6% growth.

The officers’ answers to that request last week were:

• We probably can do it, said Elections Supervisor Ron Turner and Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, who controls the county’s largest department budget, $200 million-plus that has risen by nearly $100 million over the last four years.
• We probably can’t do it, said Clerk of Court and Comptroller Karen Rushing and Property Appraiser Bill Furst, citing myriad state-required duties and the rising costs of health-care coverage and contributions to the Florida Retirement System.
• It's complicated, said Tax Collector Mike Moran, reminding commissioners his department’s annual budget is approved by the Florida Department of Revenue and largely self-funded by fees it collects for services that it provides. Those fees are attached to property tax collections, motor vehicle and vessel registrations, driver's licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, motor vehicle transactions and other state and local revenue collections. For his part, he said the department has sent millions of unspent fees back into the county’s general fund — as required by state law — and that he is working to update and modernize his department. He said the Tax Collector’s office was an outdated and inefficient operation when he took office in 2025. “This wasn’t a forward-looking organization, it was a museum with office hours,’’ he said, describing technology in need of updating. In the first budget cycle under Moran, his office received 27% more than the previous year, from $11.73 million in the current fiscal year to $14.92 million. That was a $3.18 million increase, which he explained last summer would go toward that modernization and not back to the county's bank account.

Image via Sarasota County

Hoffman said 14 full-time equivalent positions won’t be filled this time around and that the department is working to make vehicles and boats last longer, but he likely will seek to hire new deputies in years to follow as population growth begins to erode an already-borderline deputy-to-population ratio of 1.2 per 1,000 against a statewide average of 1.6.

Also of concern, bills pending in the Legislature that could add costs to retirement contributions for staff who face on-the-job perils. Also pending is legislation that would change the way 911 emergency calls are handled, possibly requiring additional work hours, and holiday/weekend court hours that would require security coverage by deputies.

“Wellen Park and Lakewood Ranch, the two fastest-growing communities in the United States, obviously millions of visitors here, it’s not always just rooftops that are going up,’’ he said.

Turner, too, said staffing and other costs associated with population growth affect his office, but the elections office would likely stay in the county's growth range. “Probably not a trick we’ll be able to repeat for multiple years,’’ he said.

Rushing said considering the mandated tasks and responsibilities of her office, advancing spending by 1.6% “might not work,’’ adding she didn’t want to seem uncooperative.

“Buying one less box of pencils isn’t going to do it,’’ she said.

Driving the overall discussion are modeling projections formed across two decades that show the county, at previous spending rates, would begin to show a deficit next year, to the tune of $37.8 million, requiring a dip into reserves to balance the figures as required by state law. Deeper spending would deepen the dip into reserves.

Further, beyond the 1.6% increase ceiling for 2027, spending increases of no more than 3.6% likely in subsequent years would smooth the path toward a balanced budget into the 2030s, according to the models. Failing to reach the 1.6% level could trigger smaller growth in subsequent years, prompting commissioners to seek alternative projections that could call for smaller increases in spending through 2031 – on the order of 3.2%

“From what I’m hearing, maybe it’s just not possible,’’ Commissioner Joe Neunder said. 

For his part, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis said the departments for which he’s responsible would hit the 1.6% mark.

Kim Ratke, the county’s director of financial management, briefly delivered a presentation on so-called municipal services taxing units, which direct specific revenue sources to specific destinations, such as the Sheriff’s Office or library operations. Such levies appear as separate line items on annual property tax bills. She also presented briefly on public service taxes, which are part of power, water and gas bills. No discussion followed.

Sarasota resident Martin Hyde expressed skepticism and suggested the situation was years in the making and additional taxation was not the answer. Commissioner Tom Knight said the board was unlikely to raise the property-tax rate, a notion that was also supported by the others.

“Turkeys should be the last thing to ask what’s on the table for Thanksgiving,’’ Hyde said.