Sarasota County Budget Gets Leaner

When Sarasota County Commissioners tackle this year's budget at their first budget workshop on Feb. 23 they'll have $31 million they were counting on to use.

On Thursday staffers from the Office of Financial Planning gave a sneak peek of next year’s budget to the press.

Steve Botehlo, interim chief financial planning officer, lead the briefing. He opened with startling news. Last year commissioners approved a spending plan that called for using nearly $25 million in reserves. But the reserves weren’t touched, and the county was able to preserve the reserves and carry forward an additional $6 million.

“Positions were kept vacant, spending on travel and training was tightened, there were no pay increases for non-union employees,” he said. “As the clerk totaled out the spending for the year, we were able to pay the bills without going into the reserves.”

If the property tax levy remains constant, the county overall will work within a $800 million budget. That’s down almost $200 million from two years ago.

Government budgets can be dry as overdone toast, but without money to do something, the “something” won’t get done. Help for crack-addicted babies, mowing grass in the medians, keeping the sewer plant running — without money in the budget, government services come to a halt.

During the boom times as property values skyrocketed, county commissioners kept dialing back the millage rate but still raked in extra millions. They put the surplus  aside for a “rainy day.” A whopping $50 million was sequestered to pay for cleanup after a natural disaster (AKA a hurricane).

And $33 million was set aside for “economic uncertainty,” because commissioners knew the good times wouldn’t last. The first decade of the 21^st Century was a roller coaster ride for Sarasota County. Property values shot to unheard of levels, and then crashed just as suddenly.

Staffers predict the second decade will be a painfully slow recovery of property values for tax purposes.

Today Sarasota County’s revenue from property taxes is the same as it was eight years ago. And Bothelo is not predicting a fast rebound.

“We expect property values will be down by four percent next fiscal year,” he said. And county staff is predicting the following fiscal year will see another one percent decline. Staffers are not predicting an uptick in the property tax roll until fiscal year 2016.

These are estimates, of course. By being pessimistic, staffers can craft a conservative spending plan. However there are projects on the horizon that could tap into any improved financial picture.

Bothelo listed several projects that are currently on hold but will come up. The through the City of Sarasota may require $12 million; a . And proposals for a southern Sarasota County Courthouse, a new jail and 9-1-1 communications using 800MHz technology are all multi-million dollar projects.

Two prior decisions also hang over the budget deliberations next month. For years the county commissioners refused to increase a miniscule tax rate for mosquito control, a separate taxing agency. Instead they simply filled the deficit from the general fund, because they feared a headline: Commission Raises Tax Rate. It remains a $2 million unfilled hole in Bothelo’s proposed budget.

Another unfilled hole is about $2.5 million for human services grants and contracts. These too were filled for years from the general fund, on a year-to-year basis. So right off the bat, commissioners are looking at adding $4.5 million in spending to the basic budget.

These two voids – and their consequences – will be up for discussion at the Feb. 23 workshop.