No County Funds For Rumble After Commission Ends EDC Incentive Grants

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Sarasota County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to end the county’s Economic Development Incentive Fund.

This means Rumble, a Canadian video-sharing platform opening its U.S. headquarters in Longboat Key, won’t receive a planned $825,000 rebate for bringing new jobs to Sarasota County. Though commissioners approved the grant, the county hadn’t signed a contract with the company.

The YouTube alternative, popular among conservatives, has been protested by some county residents in recent weeks because the social media site continues to offer a platform to RT, a Russian-state controlled news network, during Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

An online petition called for commissioners to rescind the incentive grant for Rumble and some county residents have spoken out about the grant at recent Sarasota County Commission meetings.

Commissioners say the decision to end the Economic Development Incentive Fund is less about Rumble, specifically, and more about what’s best for Sarasota County.

“This is a bigger topic than one company. This is a bigger topic than one opportunity,” said Commissioner Christian Ziegler during Monday’s meeting. “With economic incentives, we’re picking winners and losers. As the government, I don’t really like that at all.”

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Lisa Krouse told commissioners that the Economic Development Corporation has been moving away from the incentive program, using it minimally since she took over as CEO of the agency in August.

“We took it off the website and haven’t been marketing the incentive grant program at all,” she said.

In fact, within the past year, the agency brought just one incentive grant application before commissioners, she said.

Instead, the EDC has focused on marketing itself as “a concierge service,” she added, “so we have a full package both for companies that exist here and others than are interested in joining us.”

If the county were to continue or adopt a new rebate program, Krouse said that it requires a fresh look against the county’s current needs.

Commissioner Nancy Dietert said the incentive fund was created to draw new companies to Sarasota County during a period of high unemployment, which doesn’t fit the region’s current needs.

“Our new problem is too many people want to come here and how do we handle the tidal wave of people and businesses,” she said.

Many people have moved to the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing their businesses with them, Dietert added.

Because of this, the EDC should serve as “a starting point for businesses that want to relocate here,” rather than pushing the rebate program, she said.

More conversations need to be had about the local workforce and offering strong employees to these new companies, though Dietert cautioned about shifting the EDC’s focus too much from business to education.

Calling the Economic Development Incentive Fund “flawed,” Commissioner Michael Moran said that he’s long been against the grant program.

“I’m for anything that changes and moves away from doing the same behaviors over and over and expecting a different result,” he said.

Meanwhile, the commission’s chair, Alan Maio, said the EDC’s focus should be on other programs and working with businesses in Sarasota County in other ways.

“We are on the cusp of winning some big companies and I want them to have a place to land,” he said. “We can control the process. We can control policy and we just need a place for some of these to land.”