Furst talks of his staff’s efficiencies and expresses frustration over county’s budgeting practices in regard to his office
During a presentation of his office’s Fiscal Year 2027 proposed budget to the County Commission on July 7, Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst talked not only of the efficiency of his staff but also of his frustration with the county’s budgeting practices.
His finance manager, Donna Perkins, “must explain every single line item” of his annual budget to the staff of the Florida Department of Revenue (DOR), which is charged with approving the budget, Furst pointed out.
His proposed total budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1, is $10,311,689. It will be down 3%, compared to the total of $10,629,061 that the county showed for his office for this fiscal year.
Furst reminded the board members that they had asked all of the county’s constitutional officers — such as Furst and Sheriff Kurt Hoffman — to keep any FY 2027 budget increases affecting the county’s General Fund to 1.6%, out of concern that a state property tax referendum that will be on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot will win voters’ approval.
The General Fund’s primary source of money is property tax revenue. That fund covers the expenses of departments and constitutional officers’ operations that do not generate sufficient revenue — or any revenue — on their own to cover their costs.
However, Furst told the commissioners, according to the Department of Revenue, his FY 2027 budget will be approximately $9.8 million.
Over the past 18 years, he pointed out, the county’s budget figures have included amounts in the General Fund that his office receives from taxing authorities — with the exclusion of the Sarasota County School Board — as provided for by state law. For example, he said, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) and the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) are expected to pay his office $1,060,395 in the 2027 fiscal year.
Other sources, as noted in a slide that Furst showed the commissioners, will pay his office $677,692 in FY27. Those represent taxing entities such as the county’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program (ESLPP), which imposes a voter-approved annual tax of 0.25 mills on property owners; and the Siesta Key Village Public Improvement District, which assesses the owners of property in that portion of the Village and its environs where the county paid for a beautification project that was completed in early 2009. The revenue from the annual assessments pays for the upkeep of that district.
The county’s Office of Financial Management staff does collect what those entities owe his office, Furst acknowledged, putting the revenue into the General Fund.
Overall, since 2011, Furst emphasized, the county has documented his operations as costing the county nearly $20 million more than it actually has.
In other words, Furst told the commissioners, “There’s [$1,738,087] that you say you are paying on my behalf out of the General Fund that you aren’t paying. … I’d like to get my budget looking right, because my budget really isn’t 10.3 [million].”
The work and the efficiencies of staff
Early on during his July 7 presentation, Furst explained to the commissioners, “A very key part of determining the taxable value [of county property] that I give you every year involves the Department of Revenue [DOR].” Its staff, he said, reviews the values produced by every property appraiser in the estate, “to ensure the property values are fair, accurate and consistent for everyone, no matter where you live.”
Without that oversight, he continued, “Every county would operate a little differently, as you can imagine.”
Further, he said, the DOR “uses statistical testing to evaluate how close to market value every property appraiser in the state is. The Florida Constitution says that we must appraise at market value,” which, he pointed out, is “basically the layman’s definition of what your house would sell for.”
However, he noted, the DOR allows every property appraiser “to assess property 10% high or 10% low. … You couldn’t expect us to hit [the exact figure] every time.”
When he launched his first campaign for his position — in 2008 — Furst continued, “I promised to assess property as low as legally allowable so nobody would be overtaxed.”
Then he showed the commissioners a chart illustrating the fact that only two other Florida property appraiser’s offices assess parcels lower than his staff does.
“I’m sure that’s not something you love to hear,” he added, as the county parcels could be higher in value by 20%. “But, you know, that’s where our goal is, and I’m just very proud that we’ve stuck with that goal.”
Further, Furst told them, his salary is based on the number of parcels he appraises. In Florida, 60 counties — out of the 67 total — “assess fewer parcels per position than we do. … We operate very, very efficiently, which is important, because most of our payroll goes strictly to staff.”
What his office spends is $32.01 for each of the 380,000 parcels in Sarasota County, he pointed out.
Moreover, Furst said, his staff undertakes 83,000 reviews of property every year, using imagery.
Then Furst told the commissioners that, in the aftermath of the 2024 hurricanes, “Three thousand people called us and said, ‘Come look at my parcel … because we’ve got damage that you need to account for.’ So there’s a lot of stuff going on in our office.”
On one further note, Furst reported, “By the numbers, I guess the one I’m probably most proud of is [his office] is one of the few places in the county [with] live operators answering our phones.” He indicated that the annual call volume is about 33,000.
The ‘internal service charges’ issue
Yet another facet of his budget — which he does not control — Furst again stressed — is the total county charge for “internal services.”
The latter refer to the payments that each county constitutional officer and county department is accorded, as part of its budget, to represent that entity’s share of county expenses such as employee health insurance and technological equipment, including computers for staff.
Commissioner Tom Knight, a former three-term sheriff of Sarasota County, told Furst that, while serving as a constitutional officer himself, Knight would direct his staff to bring “underneath my roof” anything the county provided that he believed his agency could provide on its own for less. Knight suggested that with any of the relevant Property Appraiser’s Office expenses, Furst should pursue contracts that would be lower than what the county charges him.
“Certainly,” Knight added, “if you can lower [an expense], and we keep the money … in the General Fund, for us, that’s great.”
Knight did ask Deputy County Administrator and Chief Financial Management Officer Steve Botelho whether what he was telling Furst was “on the right track?”
“Correct,” Botelho responded.
Furst noted that he was referring to the county charges for his office space — with the cost calculated per square foot — its phone system, and the staff’s computers, for examples.
For that matter, Knight suggested, if Furst could find office space that would be cheaper than the amount the county charges him for his operations, Furst should pursue that, as well. “We have space needs right now,” Knight continued. “We’re trying to look at where we put our people.”
Botelho added that, for other examples, the internal service charges vary in accord to whether an office is using laptops instead of desk computers, and smaller vehicles result in a smaller internal service charge than larger vehicles.
“We don’t dictate what they get as far as space or equipment,” Botelho said of the constitutional officers, “but the charge is the charge for us to provide that service.”
Commissioner Joe Neunder thanked Furst “for highlighting … the actual budget that you’re spending, as opposed to what you’re bringing in in other revenue sources. … I thought that to be very meaningful for the record,” Neunder added, noting, “The internal service charge conversation … has always been somewhat nebulous.”