From a budget standpoint, Sarasota County and its non-board-controlled constitutional offices — the supervisor of elections, tax collector, property appraiser, Sheriff’s Office, public defender, state attorney and clerk’s office — have been living quite well for the past several years. Their budgets have been super-fueled by a combination of rising property values, unprecedented population growth and federal government bailouts in response to the pandemic and two seasons of hurricanes.
Because there was so much taxpayer money available, they forgot about the value of small government and got used to niceties like fancy parks and recreational facilities, shiny new public buildings, helicopters, cars, software, additional staff, and more. That type of spending is certainly partially responsible for an increase of more than 56 percent in the county’s budget from 2021-2025.
Now, the taxpayer gravy train is about to dry up. The signs are plain as day. Property values in our area are among the fastest-dropping in the U.S., tourism is softening, and there is no expectation that we will get another gift from the federal government. To the contrary: Washington and Tallahassee are tightening their belts and are now expecting municipalities to do the same.
One might think that, at our recent county budget workshops, alarm bells would have gone off. But surprisingly, I did not hear a single presenter, from within the county or from the constitutional offices, discuss how they were trying to trim the fat and spend less. They wanted more. In some cases, a lot more.
Nearly all of our elected county officials campaigned for office as “conservative” Republicans, and most have been in the same or other local offices for several years. They know that our tax revenues have risen and so have the tax bills of county citizens. For example, a house my family once owned in Nokomis, which we sold in 2014, saw an increase of 41.5% on its county tax bill in 10 years.
Despite this knowledge, many of our officials are failing to even try to reduce spending. In some cases, to support their requests, they are subtly threatening emotional issues — from excessive wait times to layoffs and the ultimate emotional hot button: a reduction in public safety.
As a former Florida Highway Patrol command officer and the sheriff of Sarasota County for 12 years, I can state firsthand that it is possible to serve the public and keep them safe, even if it’s on the occasional shoestring budget. You may not operate from the most beautiful building or have all of the bells and whistles, but you must roll with the ups and downs of the economy and the public’s will. I recognized this when I became sheriff in the midst of the Great Recession and returned $1.4 million to the county’s coffers.
It is said that DOGE is a state of mind. I’m calling on all county officials, especially elected ones who position themselves as conservatives, to embrace that mindset and get to work now making the hard decisions that will soften the impact when the revenue train crashes.
Tom Knight of Venice represents District 3 on the Sarasota County Commission; he previously was county sheriff for 12 years.
Guest columns and other contributed opinion pieces are the views of their respective author(s) and do not reflect necessarily the opinion of The Sarasota News Leader or its publisher, New Sheriff Publishing, Inc.