Proposed total countywide millage rate put at 3.3842, compared to 3.3856 this fiscal year
As they typically do each year during their early July meetings, the Sarasota County commissioners this week approved the not-to-exceed millage rates for the 2026 fiscal year.
The unanimous vote came on July 8, after Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management, pointed out that the board members could lower any or all of those rates before the 2026 fiscal year budget is adopted in September, following two public hearings.
Those hearings are scheduled for Sept. 10 and Sept. 24, she added.
In seeking to underscore Radtke’s remarks, Commissioner Tom Knight pointed out that the rates are for advertisement in the Truth in Millage notices that go out to property owners in August.
“That is correct,” Radtke replied.
As a county staff memo included in the July 8 meeting packet noted, the proposed, total FY 2026 millage rate is 3.3842 mills, compared to the rate of 3.3856 for the current fiscal year.
The difference from this year to next year is the lower debt service for the bonds that voters approved in November 2018 for the extensions of The Legacy Trail to downtown Sarasota and to North Port, Radtke explained. Because of a decrease in the figure for the debt service, she told the commissioners, that millage rate is going down 0.0014 mills.
She characterized the rest of the millage rates as flat.
The 2026 fiscal year will begin on Oct. 1.
Each mill represents $1,000 of the value of a home. Therefore, the owner of a home valued at $300,000 would pay $300 in property taxes on that house.
A chart provided in that staff memo in the meeting packet shows that the debt service for the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program (ESLPP) is proposed to go down 0.0045 mills, while the Mosquito Control millage rate will rise 0.0060 mills.
The General Operating millage rate of 3.2273 mills will be lower than it is this fiscal year: 3.2288. The operating rate is the one that will be shown on the TRIM notices, the staff memo says.
(In July 2024, staff noted that the proposed millage rate for this fiscal year would be the lowest for the county in 37 years.)
The proposed county budget for the 2026 fiscal year is $2,517,346,894, the July 8 staff memo adds.
Commissioner Mark Smith made the motion to approve the not-to-exceed millage rates, and Commissioner Ron Cutsinger seconded it.