Tax collectors also could waive commissions in regard to such revenue, bill says
The Sarasota County School Board and Sarasota County Tax Collector Mike Moran are waiting to learn whether Gov. Ron DeSantis will sign the bill passed during the recent special legislative session that calls for county commissions to pay any commissions that tax collector’s offices charge in regarding to the handling of school revenue deriving from special taxes, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
In the meantime, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Hunter W. Carroll has agreed to allow the Sarasota County School Board until July 20 to file an amended version of its April 24 complaint against Sarasota County Tax Collector Moran over his charging more than $2 million in commissions on the handling of the revenue resulting from the School District’s special 1-mill tax.
On June 18, the School Board filed its motion seeking the extra time. Noting that Carroll previously had ordered a limited hold on action in the case, pending the potential action of the Legislature, the motion points out that the Legislature passed House Bill 7031E, which “is set to take effect on July 1 …”
That motion adds that the School Board anticipates that DeSantis either will sign the bill, which won legislative approval on May 29, or allow it to take effect without his signature, “in the coming days.”
As of early afternoon on Wednesday, June 24, DeSantis had taken no action on the bill, the News Leader learned.
The Florida House vote to approve the law as amended was 88-11; in the Senate, the decision was 29-6, legislative records show.
Section 2 of the Legislature’s bill says, “The commissions on the amount of taxes from school millages shall be paid by the board of county commissioners.”
However, it adds, “The tax collector may waive the commission,” but the decision to do so “must be communicated to the board of county commissioners in writing no later than March 1 for the fiscal year beginning October 1 of the calendar year the waiver takes effect and shall remain in effect unless rescinded in writing by the tax collector.”
The rescinding of a waiver “must be communicated to the board of county commissioners in writing no later than March 1 for the fiscal year beginning October 1 of the calendar year” when that will take effect, it points out.
The law does say that, for this calendar year, the deadline for communication about a waiver is Sept. 1.
Attorney Daniel J. DeLeo, of the Shumaker Kendrick & Loop firm in Sarasota, is continuing to represent the School Board in the litigation.
As the News Leader has reported, the School Board and two individuals filed their complaint against Tax Collector Moran, in his official capacity, contending that Moran violated public trust by having his office take a commission for collecting the revenue derived from the special 1-mill Sarasota County School District tax that voters have approved by margins of more than 80% during the past two referenda.
One mill represents $1,000 of the value of a parcel.
The first vote of approval of the tax came in 2002, the complaint notes, “and the referendum has been approved at each election, in which it was presented, since such time.”
An exhibit filed with the complaint — from a letter that Moran sent in July 2025 to Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Connor and County Administrator Jonathan Lewis — shows that the School Board revenue collected in 2024 totaled $103,962,920. The 2% commission on that amount added up to $2,079,258.
The complaint further stresses that, for about 23 years, “[T]he School Board has not paid any commission to the Tax Collector on the voter-approved millage.” Moran was elected tax collector in November 2024, defeating Barbara Ford-Coates, who had served as that constitutional officer since 1984.
During the County Commission’s regular meeting on May 5, the board members voted 3-2 to rescind a vote they took in August 2025 to stop paying commissions on collections of the School District’s special tax revenue. Two weeks later — also during a regular meeting — commissioners formally acted to confirm that vote, a step that County Attorney Joshua Moye had advised they pursue because the May 5 agenda provided no notice of the potential vote that day.
On May 19, the vote was unanimous, as Commissioner Teresa Mast included in her motion the provision that the board members will revisit their decision after the School Board’s lawsuit has been settled.
In the meantime, Bradley J. Ellis, co-counsel for the Tax Collector’s Office, had filed a motion on May 15, asking the court to dismiss the School Board’s lawsuit with prejudice, meaning that the School Board could not file an amended version of it. He cited state law and a 1930 Florida Supreme Court case to justify Tax Collector Moran’s collecting of commissions on the handling of the School Board’s revenue from the special tax.
However, on May 26, during a case management conference, Judge Caroll ordered the stay on the lawsuit, as the School Board had indicated during that conference that efforts were underway in the Legislature to change the applicable state law.