Millage rates, budget and Capital Improvement Program approved during rescheduled session
Late in the afternoon of Sept. 30, as the Sarasota County Commission was starting its final public hearing on the county’s 2025 fiscal year budget, a solitary speaker was present to address the board.
Unlike the situation with a sole speaker during the first hearing — held on Sept. 12 — this individual aimed much of his criticism at Chair Michael Moran.
Sarasota businessman Martin Hyde, who long has emphasized his fiscal conservatism during appearances before the County Commission — as well as the Sarasota City Commission — said the “outrageous budget [of more than $2 billion] proposed for the 2025 fiscal year was “obviously a done deal.” He called the board members a “faux fiscal conservative body.”
Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management, said during the Sept. 30 hearing that the total budget is $2,089,303,625. County Administrator Jonathan Lewis has explained that that includes all of the reserve funds that the county maintains.
Then Hyde raised the issue of Moran’s campaign to replace long-time Sarasota County Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates.
Referencing a Tiger Bay Club meeting held in early September, Hyde noted that Moran criticized Ford-Coates for “taking money she wanted versus needed,” for services her staff provides, including driver’s license renewals and the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses.
Moran pointed out that the money belonged to the citizens, Hyde continued, so it “shouldn’t be wasted or spent without caution.”
As the Sarasota Observer reported, during the Tiger Bay Club program on Sept. 5, Moran accused Ford-Coates of “overcharging for services even though those funds were returned to the county government.”
Each year, as Ford-Coates has noted in her annual budget presentations to the County Commission, she returns revenue to the county that her staff has collected but which she does not need to cover her office’s expenses. She has pointed out that the funds would be considered “profit” in the private sector. In 2023, she reported, the figure was about $16.3 million.
During her June 19 presentation on her proposed FY 2025 budget, Ford-Coates also noted that her office’s cost per capita is $22.36, which is the lowest of all tax collector offices in the state.
Ford-Coates had to be absent from the Tiger Bay Club meeting because of a sudden family emergency, the Observer explained, so Moran agreed to allow Chief Deputy Tax Collector Sheri Smith participate in the planned debate that day in Ford-Coates’ place.
Moran complained that the revenue Ford-Coates turns over to the county is placed in the General Fund and cannot be returned to those who paid it, except by way of a lower county millage rate.
The General Fund pays for the operations of county departments that do not generate their own revenue. It also is used to cover unexpected expenses that arise during the year when no other source of funding can be found for those purposes.
“Smith countered that fees for all registrations and licenses are set by the state,” the Observer added.
In his Sept. 30 comments, Hyde continued, “This surely can’t be the same Michael Moran who’s supporting a 67% increase in the last four years for our Sheriff’s Department when crime is down by over 30% statewide in the last 14 years.”
As The Sarasota News Leader reported on Sept. 20, the budget materials included in the agenda packet for the Sept. 12 hearing showed that the tentative 2025 fiscal year budget for the Sheriff’s Office is $200,037,665, which is up 9.8% from the 2024 adopted figure of $182,248,096.
Hyde added, “Our county population is up by 28% since 2007, but this county’s budget has doubled in the past nine years. That obviously couldn’t have happened with fiscal conservatives — hawks, like Mr. Moran, the champion of taxpayers — at the helm, but, apparently, it did.”
Ultimately, Hyde blamed the commissioners for not bucking budget increases proposed by county staff.
The commissioners should send the proposed budgets back to staff members “with red ink all over their proposals,” he added.
Noting that no Democrat has been elected to the County Commission in nearly 60 years, Hyde said no need to elect one exists, “when you spend taxpayers’ money just as greedily as the most devout leftist ever could.”
After Hyde completed his statement, Moran told him, “Have a good evening, Mr. Hyde.”
Then, it took only about 6 minutes for the board members to cast unanimous votes in favor of the county millage rates and the budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.
They also approved the county’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the period of 2025 through 2029, although staff has explained that, generally, only the projects slated for the first year of each five-year CIP are expected to be pursued. During subsequent budget years, the board members often do adjust construction priorities.
The total CIP spending allocated for the 2025 fiscal year is $336,629,618.
At the urging of Commissioner Neil Rainford, the board members did vote in late June to direct county staff to reduce department expenses so the total operating millage rate would be no more than 3 mills for the next fiscal year. During remarks at the start of the Sept. 30 hearing, County Administrator Lewis said that that reduction was approximately $3.6 million.
One mill represents $1,000 of property value.
The final 2025 fiscal year budget hearing had been scheduled for Sept. 27 in Sarasota. Because of the effects of Hurricane Helene, it was postponed until Sept. 30.
Top initiatives in the CIP for FY 2025
Of all county departments, Public Utilities has the highest amount budgeted for projects during the 2025 fiscal year, as shown in the Capital Improvement Program documents provided to the commissioners prior to the Sept. 30 hearing. That total is $152,353,190. Out of that, the largest portion of the money will go toward wastewater projects: $122,253,389. For example, $5 million has been allocated for lift station rehabilitation.
The allocation for potable water initiatives is $29,599,801.
Yet, the highest figure for a Public Utilities project is $98,014,502, for the transformation of the Venice Gardens Water Reclamation Facility to Advanced Wastewater Treatment status, plus the expansion of the plant’s capacity. A chart showed that the commissioners previously had appropriated $22,516,695 to that undertaking.
The second highest figure on the list is for General Services, which oversees a variety of building issues, including renovations. The amount for its FY 2025 projects is $81,793,215.
For example, the planned expense for replacing the heating, air conditioning and ventilation system (HVAC) in the Historic Courthouse in the new fiscal year has been put at $400,000.
For Public Works, which includes the Stormwater and Transportation divisions, the total is $45,280,755. The funding allocated for “Traffic Circulation” initiatives is $32,700,086. Of the latter amount, $14,054,202 has been set aside for the widening of Fruitville Road from two to four lanes from Debrecen Road to Lorraine Road.
Another $12,095,798 has been budgeted for resurfacing projects.
For the five years through FY 2029, the estimated amount is $2,602,177,538.