County Commission reverses stance on paying school-tax fee

Voicing concern about potential involvement in a lawsuit between Sarasota County’s school district and its tax collector over $2 million in fees, county commissioners on Tuesday got the ball rolling on re-assuming the financial responsibility for paying what commissioners believed to be a $589,000 annual tab.

While not final, because the discussion sprung up organically without agenda notice, the reversal of an August 2025 decision would essentially return the county to a role it’s held for more than 20 years.

“In my background, I’ve made decisions that I regret, and I feel like I regret a decision I made in the past and so I wanted to get the rest of the board's thoughts on this,’’ said Commissioner Tom Knight near the end of a seven-hour meeting in Venice, kicking off the discussion.

The vote to reconsider passed 3-2, with Teresa Mast and Ron Cutsinger in opposition.

Tax Collector Mike Moran charges a 2% commission on revenue collected through Sarasota County Schools’ optional 1-mill property tax, which historically receives overwhelming voter support when it’s up for renewal, as it has for the last 23 years.

And, until August, coinciding with the first budget with Moran as tax collector, the burden of paying that commission on that tax has fallen to Sarasota County. The August vote to move the fee to the School District was swift and unanimous, 5-0. At the time, Commissioner Teresa Mast said: “I’m not interested in continuing to pick up the tab. This needs to be passed on to the school board. They can find the money. It’s time to turn that over after 23 years.”

On April 24, the school district filed a lawsuit over the shift, saying the responsibility of paying the commission annually would take money away from educational needs. In its court filing, the School District argued that commission through March has diverted $2,055,798.65 to Moran’s office.

While the vote to reconsider who pays for the commission was approved, Knight questioned the appropriateness of fee itself, something Moran described in an op-ed piece in several publications this week as a “legal obligation’’ of his office.

Not only is the lawsuit between the school board and Moran’s office an open issue, so is an anticipated legal opinion from the state’s attorney general on the charging of commissions, resolution of which could shift the landscape one way or the other.

“Fair is fair and we have a responsibility, I believe, to make it right, not for the government bodies, but for the voters who vote on the school referendum,’’ Knight said. “This appears to me to be a discretionary action that is not required by law. The tax collector may be entitled and believe he is entitled to the commission, but it is not illegal to not charge commission for the service.’’

County Administrator Jonathan Lewis reminded commissioners that similar commissions on optional, voter-approved levies are not uncommon and pointed to a similar fee on the collection of revenue derived from the county’s own Legacy Trail millage line item.

“Any time there is a millage, there’s a lawful process, and I don’t care how you guys handle this, just understand that any millage, anything that is voted, you’re going to pay a commission to the property appraiser and tax collector,’’ he said.

The issue between the school board and tax collector’s office largely came to a head on April 12, when Superintendent Terry Connor presented a State of Education address at a Sarasota County Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

"I'm one person here, but I'm not in any way, shape or form in favor of removing taxpayer dollars in the form of a referendum from Sarasota County school district,'' Commission Chair Joe Neunder said.