Cash grab in Manatee, too

Over the past month, this page has reported twice on Sarasota County Tax Collector Mike Moran and the prickly dispute over $2,055,798.65 in commissions Moran entitled his office to take from the Sarasota County School District — much to the district’s surprise and shock.

That, of course, has now become a prickly dispute in circuit court.

Meanwhile, in Manatee County, the story is similar. Longtime Tax Collector Ken Burton has been doing the same thing as Moran — albeit longer, for even more money and with slightly less public contentiousness. The Manatee School Board hasn’t sued Burton, although its members are plenty irritated, to put it mildly.

In the box, you can see in fiscal year 2025 and the current fiscal year, Burton’s office has withheld $2,506,224.95 from the Manatee school district.

And like his counterpart in Sarasota, Burton has been taking the position that state statutes require him to charge a commission on Manatee’s voter-approved, one-mill ad valorem tax for schools.

Burton’s decision to start charging this commission actually came to public light in July 2025. The East County Observer reported Burton began charging a 2% commission in October 2024 — a month before Moran was elected.

In that report, the East County Observer noted how Burton, like Moran, surprised the district:

“We were unaware that the tax collector was going to start taking a commission,” Rachel Sellers, deputy superintendent of business services, told Manatee school board members.

School Board Member Chad Choate also said Burton gave no warning to the board of the 2% commission. Choate said he had met with Burton June 27, 2025, to discuss the commission, but the meeting ended with no resolution.

“Everybody was very nice and cooperative,” Choate told the Observer. “I don’t think there was any malice.”

Nevertheless, Manatee School Board members viewed the new charge with disdain and outrage. The Observer reported board member Heather Felton saying: “The tax collector didn’t get out there and do anything to get this millage. The fact that he gets a commission off doing nothing is disgusting to me. And yes, I’m very irritated about this.”

After that July 2025 school board meeting, the lawyers on both sides became involved. Around late August, early September 2025, Burton and his lawyers mollified the school board’s angst by telling the district Burton’s office had requested a ruling from the Florida attorney general to determine whether the tax collector was entitled to the commission.

The school board stood down.

(Moran tried the same approach just a few weeks ago in Sarasota.)

But you could say the attorney general tactic was a blatant stall and subterfuge on Burton’s part. For the next nine months, Burton’s office continued to collect the commission, while the school board awaited the opinion.

And yet, on May 8, 2026, asked to confirm if the request for the opinion had been submitted to the attorney general, Burton’s office said it had been drafted but never submitted. Most people would say Burton’s office lied.

Manatee School Superintendent Laurie Breslin told us last week: “When I stepped into my role mid-September, my understanding at that time was that we were waiting on this opinion from the attorney general.

“I did meet with the tax collector about two weeks ago. And during that meeting, we learned that that request was never sent to the attorney general, and they have no intention of sending it at this time, pending the litigation that has been filed in Sarasota and now in South Florida as well.”

Breslin said the school district and Burton’s office “at this point have agreed to continue the conversation this summer to see if we can come to a resolution. I would like not to end up in a situation where we are spending costly dollars in litigation. That defeats the purpose that I want to achieve — and that is to get this money into our schools to support our students.”

In each case, the postures and justifications of the tax collectors are flimsy, see-through fabrications. If, for example, you read Burton’s July 11, 2025, “Setting the record straight” online memo (Google “manatee tax collector setting the record straight.”), it’s spin that uses a poorly worded state statute as a cover. 

 The two sagas are clearly a money grab and about power. To wit: Asked what prompted Burton’s office to begin charging for the first time a commission on the voter-approved tax — was it a change in the law? No. Burton’s explanation  was in his memo: “After an internal review in 2024, our office made a necessary correction … ”

No warning. No vote. No change in the law. Just self-appointed, self-anointed abuse of power.