State law governs amounts, based on population
Thanks to a unanimous Sarasota County Commission vote in late August, the board members’ salary, per state law, has risen to $112,580.
Every two years, in accord with Chapter 145 of the Florida Statutes, new salaries are set for county commissioners, school superintendents, school board members and the elected constitutional officers in each county. The latter include the sheriff and the tax collector.
For Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman, for example, the new salary level is $259,393. For Tax Collector Mike Moran, it is $219,216, a chart shows.
The salary increase was due to take effect on Oct. 1, the start of the 2026 fiscal year and remain in effect through Sept. 30, 2027, which will be the end of the 2027 fiscal year. For the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, the salary was set at $105,541. In comparison, for the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, it was $87,930. Thus, the figure has risen about 28% over the past six years.
The state chart explains, “The calculated salary figures for all officers reflect the use of April 1, 2024 countywide population estimates listed in ‘Florida Estimates of Population 2024’ published by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR).”
State leaders use the BEBR data for a variety of purposes, Sarasota County staff has explained in the past.
Section 145.011(2) of the Florida Statutes points out, “The Legislature has determined that a uniform and not arbitrary and discriminatory salary law is needed to replace the haphazard, preferential, inequitable, and probably unconstitutional local law method of paying elected county officers.” Section 145.011(4) adds, “The salary schedules in this chapter are therefore based on a classification of counties according to each county’s population, which the Legislature determines to be the most practical basis from which to arrive at an adequate, uniform salary system.”
The Sarasota County population estimate as of April 1, 2024 was 479,027, the BEBR report said. That reflected an increase of 45,021 between 2020 and 2024, the document noted. The number of people residing in the unincorporated areas of Sarasota County was estimated at 294,927, the chart showed.
A separate chart in that document put the number of births in Sarasota County between 2022 and 2024 at 11,513; the number of deaths recorded was 27,063. Further, it said, the county gained 60,571 residents through migration.
For Manatee County, the April 2024 document put the population count at 455,356. The salary listed for the Manatee County commissioners in the state document regarding the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years is $111,910.
The salary item was listed on the Aug. 26 County Commission agenda as a Presentation Upon Request, meaning that it was considered noncontroversial. Still, any member of the board can request remarks about such an agenda item, and public comments are allowed. Chair Joe Neunder noted that no one had signed up to speak about the issue, and no commissioner sought a presentation.
Commissioner Mark Smith made the motion to approve the new salary, and Commissioner Teresa Mast seconded it. Neither offered any comments before the vote.