Board members continue to express worries about potential loss of close to $90 million in property tax revenue if state referendum passes in November
With the statement, “We’re nervous about November,” Sarasota County Commissioner Tom Knight this week launched nearly an hour of board discussion about whether to halt construction projects included in the county’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget for the fiscal years 2027-2031.
He was referring to whether the necessary 60% or more of Florida voters will approve a referendum on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot that would reduce the county’s property tax revenue by an estimated $87 million in the 2029 fiscal year.
After going item by item on lists of planned CIP initiatives the board members agreed on how to proceed for the time being. Deputy County Administrator and Chief Financial Management Officer Steve Botelho and Capital Projects Department Director Carolyn Eastwood assisted with the reviews of all of the projects that had been singled out as fitting the criteria for potential pauses.
Knight initially told his colleagues, “I don’t think that we wait on everything [on the lists]. What I’m comfortable with is things that are not going to create extra [operating expenses] in our General Fund until after the November ballot measure [has passed or been voted down].”
The General Fund is the county account made up primarily of property tax revenue. It pays the expenses of county departments and operations of the county’s constitutional officers — such as the sheriff — that do not generate sufficient revenue on their own to cover their costs.
At the outset of the June 17 discussion, the commissioners agreed that they need to move forward with funding for the planned expansion of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office’s headquarters on Cattleridge Boulevard in Sarasota, as well as what is being called the “Northeast Jail Addition.” The latter has been characterized as a provisional facility to ease overcrowding in the county detention center until a new jail structure can be built; the latter plans will necessitate a voter referendum, the board members and staff acknowledged even before the Florida Legislature approved the property tax referendum.
During his June 16 presentation regarding facets of the Sheriff’s Office’s proposed budget for FY 2027, Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman pointed out that the need for more space for the agency was underscored as long ago as 2012. (See the related article in this issue.)
Knight did ask County Administrator Jonathan Lewis on June 17 whether Lewis could use the space in the Criminal Justice Center on Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota if all of the Sheriff’s Office operations remaining there were relocated to the Cattleridge Boulevard headquarters.
Lewis responded that the county’s General Services staff has been reminding him that the county pays the lease for the facility that the Drug Court of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court uses. If the Drug Court were moved to a county-owned space, he added, he believed — based on the last figure he had seen — that the savings for the county would be about $250,000 a year. Then Lewis noted that Dan Rodriguez, director of the General Services Department, who was in the back of the Commission Chambers at the Robert L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, was nodding that that was the correct amount.
Chair Ron Cutsinger and Commissioner Teresa Mast were the first to join Knight in calling for staff to proceed with the Sheriff’s Office expansion and the Northeast Jail Addition. “Nothing gets cheaper the longer you wait,” Mast reminded her colleagues.
“Absolutely,” Commissioners Joe Neunder concurred, with Commissioner Mark Smith in agreement, as well.
“Whatever happens with the referendum, public safety obviously is going to be an essential service,” Cutsinger pointed out.
As they proceeded through a detailed review of the projects, the commissioners agreed to allow staff to proceed on the following:
- The widening of Winchester Boulevard.
- A new Midnight Pass Road pedestrian bridge on Siesta Key.
- The Lorraine Road extension. “That’s the last piece to connect that [road] north-south,” Mast told her colleagues.
- The Manasota Beach Road extension.
- The Pinebrook Road intersection project.
- The Street Tree Program on U.S. 41.
- The Phillippi Shores/Brookside Sidewalk Project.
- The Old Miakka Preserve Improvements. “That’s a very passive park,” Mast said; “very passive.”
- Pinecraft Park Improvements.
- A Vamo Drive park project.
- The Wellfield Park Improvements design work.
- The design of the Longboat Key Library.
- The design of Fire Station 7.
- The design of Fire Station 27.
- The design of the Sheriff’s Office Aviation Hangar project.
A closer look, project after project
As Neunder began to scan the list in the board’s agenda packet for the budget workshops, he also noted the plans for the Longboat Key Library. “We have a donor [who has contributed funding to that undertaking],” he said. “I’m not really sure [about] that situation.”
Lewis pointed out that the proposed construction contract for the Longboat Key Library likely would not be presented to the commissioners before November.
Neunder also referenced the two new proposed fire stations, 7 and 27, adding that Rich Collins, director of the Emergency Services Department, had presented his proposed 2027 fiscal year department budget to the board earlier that day.
“We’re trying to reduce our response time [to fires and emergency medical incidents],” Neunder added, as well as create more efficiency in Fire Department operations.
“I think those are at least worth a conversation,” he continued, though he noted, they are “not a guarantee for me.”
After Neunder put the proverbial spotlight on several more projects on the list, Chair Cutsinger told his colleagues, “I’m a little bit uncomfortable with this process.” Pausing some of the plans would have no impact on the General Fund, he pointed out.
Everything that staff had identified on the list, County Administrator Lewis said, makes some use of property tax revenue, not necessarily General Fund money, though “Some of ’em are really small numbers,” he acknowledged.
The Longboat Key Library “is a sticky wicket for a lot of different reasons,” he continued, “partially because of donations” and the fact that county leaders have been working on the plans for the facility for “a long time,” perhaps six years.
“None of [the projects] are on [the list] just as a whim,” Lewis stressed. “That’s why it’s tough for you guys.”
Then Lewis told the commissioners, “I personally don’t believe, when the voters get educated about what [the property tax vote would lead to], I personally don’t think they’re going to vote for [the state referendum].”
Nonetheless, he said, if it does pass, “You’re gonna be the ones stuck trying to figure out how to fund it on the back end.”
When Cutsinger asked for clarification about the fact that none of the projects on the list had reached the point of staff’s advertising for bids for construction, Eastwood of the Capital Projects Department responded that the design of the Knights Trail Fuel Site in Nokomis had been completed. Thus, she indicated, if the board members put it on pause, staff would stop working on a solicitation for a company to handle the construction on the basis of what is called the guaranteed maximum price (GMP).
The county typically hires a firm to manage an initiative to ensure that the completion of the undertaking does not exceed the GMP.
The detailed CIP document about that undertaking says the site will have three pumps for each type of fuel county vehicles use, plus two pumps for DEF (diesel exhaust fluid, which is used to reduce air pollution, Wikipedia explains). The anticipated capacity for each would be 20,000 gallons, with 1,800 gallons allotted for the DEF, which would be stored in underground tanks.
The goal, the document adds, is to “provide a central county fuel site that supports current and future county operations in that area, including the new [Fire Training Academy].”
Further, the document notes, the facility will increase the county’s storage capacity for fuel needed for emergency operations.
“And we’d probably have to rebid that for new pricing in November,” Eastwood said, if the commissioners wanted to proceed with the fuel site project after the Nov. 3 referendum.
“The Knights Trail Fuel Site, for me, just operationally, it doesn’t make a lot of sense not to do it,” Lewis said, because construction of the new Fleet Services Facility is underway. (The groundbreaking for that project was in October 2025; it is located west of Knights Trail Road and north of Rustic Road in the Nokomis area.) Where would county staff members go to fuel their vehicles if the fuel site were not completed, Lewis asked.
Status of other projects
Lewis suggested that the commissioners take a closer look at each of the other projects on the list, so they would have the details necessary to inform their decisions about how to proceed. Before that, however, Commissioner Knight took one more opportunity to express his view that all of the initiatives except the expansion and renovation of the Sheriff’s Office Headquarters and the Northeast Jail Addition could be put on hold.
“I think we’re all feeling the angst,” Commissioner Neunder said.
Commissioner Smith, an architect, recommended that the board allow design work to proceed in each case, “prior to bidding …”
When Cutsinger asked him for a clarification, Smith said he was referring to design work already underway.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Cutsinger responded.
Yet, Commissioner Mast pointed out, “All of these are going to be at different stages, right? If they’re on this list, there’s a need, right?” Nonetheless, she added, “We have to make some tough decisions.”
Cutsinger asked whether some of the projects on the list “would be really painful and unfortunate to stop?”
Eastwood told him she could go through each of them, “If that’s OK?”
Cutsinger directed her to proceed; Deputy County Administrator Botelho assisted in that process, as follows:
- The Longboat Key Library — “The design’s about 70% complete,” Eastwood noted. In regard to donations: “We’ve actually received about $1.6 million,” she said, “but we have the commitment for just over $3 million.”
- Fire Station 7 is in the design and development stage. Construction bidding probably would not take place until after November.
- Fire Station 27 is at an even earlier stage than Fire Station 7: schematic design. “So let’s add that to the list of projects that would continue,” Cutsinger suggested; the other board members agreed with him.
- The Old Miakka Preserve Improvements are almost complete. “However,” Eastwood said, “we are awaiting building permits … It can wait.”
- The Pinecraft Park Improvements are about 90% complete. “We could pause on [that],” Eastwood told the board.
- The Vamo Drive Neighborhood Parkland Program project design “is essentially complete,” Eastwood continued, though staff is awaiting permits.
- The Sheriff’s Office Aviation Hangar “is about 50% complete right now.” Again, the commissioners agreed to put that on hold after the design has been finished.
- The Wellfield Regional Park Improvements initiative, in Venice, is in the master planning stage, Eastwood noted.
- The design of the Lorraine Road Extension, from Fruitville Road to Palmer Boulevard, is about 90% complete,” Eastwood said. No construction bidding would begin before November, she added.
- The widening of Fruitville Road from Debrecen Road to Lorraine Road: “The design’s complete [and] we do have all of our permits,” Eastwood pointed out. “We could potentially bid this one [before the Nov. 3 referendum],” she initially added and then told the board members that she did not think that it likely the work could begin before November.
- The improvements to Pinebrook Road at the intersection of East Venice Avenue and Ridgewood — The design essentially is at the 100% mark, Eastwood said, but some property acquisition will be necessary. “That one won’t happen before November,” she added.
- The Bridges Rehabilitation and Renovation initiative involves two projects: a new pedestrian bridge over a portion of Midnight Pass Road on Siesta Key and “Bridge Scour Countermeasures.” Eastwood told the board members, “We’re preparing to bid” the Midnight Pass Road undertaking, but the work likely would not start before November. The Bridge Scour Countermeasures “is in the early design phase,” she noted.
- The Phillippi Shores Elementary School Phase 2/Brookside Middle School Sidewalk Project — “The design work is complete, she said, “but we’re still working on property acquisition.” Thus, it also is “highly unlikely” that bidding would be ready before November, she noted.
- The Manasota Beach Road Extension design is complete, Eastwood continued, “but we’re still awaiting the … receipt of [a permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District].”
- The Street Tree Program on U.S. 41 from Bay Street to McIntosh Road, which entails landscaping. She reminded the commissioners that they already had approved that, at an expense of approximately $384,000, “So that could move forward …”
- The Widening of Winchester Boulevard south from South River Road by 1,300 feet — If that were to move forward, Commissioner Neunder asked, “How much significance does that have for that area of that county that’s kind of growing?”
“It’s actually an intersection improvement,” Eastwood explained.
“And there’s grant money involved,” County Administrator Lewis added.
At Cutsinger’s request, Spencer Anderson, director of the county’s Transportation Department, came to the podium in the Commission Chambers. “We have a million-dollar federal grant that we [had] to use before it expired,” Anderson explained. Therefore, he said, “We fast-tracked [this phase] of the larger River Road and Winchester widening projects.”
“Why is this [on the list for a potential pause],” Cutsinger asked.
Lewis had stressed earlier that all of the projects had been brought to the board’s attention because of the relevance of the property tax referendum. The goal, he also emphasized, was transparency.
Deputy County Administrator Botelho reiterated Lewis’ earlier comment in responding to Cutsinger. For example, Botelho continued, General Fund money will be used to staff the new Longboat Key Library.
When Cutsinger asked for more clarification about the Winchester Boulevard project, Botelho pointed out the Transportation Department gets part of its annual operating money from the General Fund.
When Cutsinger then inquired whether the county would be at risk of losing the $1-million federal grant if the board were to put that initiative on hold, Anderson told him that that would be staff’s expectation.
“Let’s not pause this project,” Cutsinger told his colleagues.
At that point, Commissioner Mast asked staff to provide more details about the property tax funding links to the above projects.
“Some of these we’ve been waiting on, literally for years,” she stressed.
Therefore, Botelho went through the list again, noting those details.