Final 2025 fiscal year budget hearings scheduled in September
With Sarasota County Commissioner Neil Rainford making the July 9 motion, he and his colleagues unanimously approved the county’s not-to-exceed millage rate for the 2025 fiscal year, proceeding with Rainford’s goal of reducing the rate to a 37-year low.
A slide that Kim Radtke, director of the county’s Office of Financial Management showed the board during her July 9 remarks said the county’s general operating millage rate had been reduced to 3.2288, which is 1.12% lower than the adopted rate this year of 3.2653.
One mill represents $1,000 of the value of a piece of property.
Altogether, the proposed millage rate for the 2025 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1, is 3.3856. That includes the county’s millage linked to debt service for bonds issued through the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program (ESLPP) — 0.0712 mills; the debt service millage for bonds issued to extend The Legacy Trail to downtown Sarasota and to North Port — 0.0396; and the county’s Mosquito Control District millage — 0.0460 added in.
The Mosquito Control millage rate was the only one unchanged from the 2024 level. In fact, The Legacy Trail millage rate is down 15.57%, compared to the figure for this fiscal year, Radtke’s chart noted.
The overall not-to-exceed millage rate is down 1.53%, compared to the adopted figure for this fiscal year: 3.4381 mills, a chart showed.
The not-to-exceed millage rate will be advertised in the Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices that the Office of the Sarasota County Property Appraiser will mail out to property owners in August.
As Radtke reminded the commissioners on July 9, they could adjust the general operating millage rate before they cast their final vote on approving the 2025 fiscal year budget, following a Sept. 26 public hearing in Sarasota. However, their vote this week means they could not raise the millage rate prior to that September action.
Starting during the board’s March budget workshop, Commissioner Rainford advocated for a lower millage rate for 2025, in light of the higher living expenses that county residents have been shouldering. Both he and Commissioner Joe Neunder also have pointed to their constituents’ struggles with high inflation over the past couple of years.
After making the July 9 motion to approve the not-to-exceed millage rate, Rainford noted that other local government bodies “are attempting to raise their taxes. This board has leaned conservatively …”
In seconding the motion, Neunder pointed out, “Certainly, [county] staff has had a heavy lift this year,” in reducing recurring expenses to achieve the millage rate the board members had agreed to in a June vote. That was not to be higher than 3.30 mills, Rainford proposed.
Neunder concurred with Rainford about indications that other local government leaders are looking at higher millage rates for the next fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1. “We’re making every effort to tighten our belts, as everybody else in the private sector does,” Neunder added.
“Super exciting,” Chair Michael Moran said of the effort to achieve the lowest county operating millage rate in nearly 40 years.
With Rainford’s motion, the commissioners also approved the not-to-exceed millage rates for special county districts, the majority of which pay for lighting in specific areas, such as Aqualane Estates, Gulf Gate and Phillippi Gardens.
Yet, the millage rate for the Siesta Key Public Improvement District also was on the list. That district encompasses the portion of Siesta Key Village that the county paid to upgrade through a project that was completed in early 2009. The goal was to provide a more resort-like atmosphere in the Village, given the fact that Siesta Public Beach is one of the county’s top tourism attractions and many of those visitors make their way into the Village for dining and shopping.
All of the property owners in the district pay taxes based on the annual millage rate, to ensure that the district is maintained.
The not-to-exceed millage rate for the Siesta Key Public Improvement District for 2025 is 2.6388; that is down 16.57%, compared to the 2024 adopted rate of 3.1628.
Another taxing unit on the list is the county’s Emergency Medical Services District, which provides funds to help cover the county’s expenses for EMS operations. That not-to-exceed rate for FY 2025 is 0.6900, which is up 4.55%, compared to the 2024 figure of 0.6600 mills.