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Sarasota County held its much-anticipated budget workshop on February 26th, and the results were a mixed bag. There was genuine progress to acknowledge budget problems, and the commission deserves credit where it is due. At the same time, several issues surfaced that will require continued scrutiny. Taxpayers need to stay engaged.

Starting with the good news: the Commission cut $5.46 million from the current 2026 budget. The Argus Foundation had called for $5 million in cuts back in December, and a narrow 3-2 vote in January directed staff to identify where those reductions could be made. Once commissioners saw that service levels would remain largely intact, that vote shifted to a unanimous 5-0 in favor of moving forward. That kind of consensus matters. Taking the initiative to reduce an existing budget is never popular with staff, and the last time the county did something similar was early in the 2018 budget year. The commission deserves recognition for following through.

Also worth commending are the Sheriff and the Supervisor of Elections. When asked to limit their budget increases to 1.6% for the upcoming 2027 fiscal year, both committed to doing so, barring any unfunded mandates from the legislature. That kind of cooperation and fiscal discipline from constitutional officers is not guaranteed, and it should not go unnoticed.

Now for the concerns. Of the $5.46 million in cuts, only $1.46 million was recurring. The remainder were one-time reductions that will not compound or carry forward into future budgets. That distinction is critical. One-time cuts can improve the current picture without doing much to address the structural imbalance underneath it, which is spending problems.

The commission also altered the rules governing the budget model itself, eliminating the $5 million safety floor in the economic uncertainty fund. Removing that cushion allows those funds to be fully counted in budget calculations and, more troubling, fully spent. On top of that, one-time funds were infused back into the general fund and then immediately designated for a specific project. It remains unclear whether staff will model future budgets with or without those funds in the baseline.

Perhaps most concerning were two slides presented on potential revenue generators. The commission had previously asked staff to research what other counties were doing, but that request was interpreted broadly enough to include proposals for new taxes and fees. A law enforcement Municipal Service Taxing Unit had been discussed in passing, but after receiving an informational memo, there had been no indication from any commissioner of a desire to bring it to a workshop discussion. A library MSTU had never been discussed at all. A public service tax of up to 10 percent on water, electricity, and gas, which failed under public pressure in 2017, also reappeared in the presentation.

Notably absent from those slides was any analysis of how other counties have reduced expenses or lowered their millage rates. How Jacksonville and Manatee County achieved rate reductions was never mentioned. The instinct for staff to reach for revenue before exhausting savings options is a pattern worth watching closely.

The Argus Foundation commends the County Commission, the Sheriff, and the Supervisor of Elections for their efforts. These are meaningful first steps. But meaningful first steps are just that, and the work ahead on controlling spending is significant.

Christine Robinson is the Chief Executive Officer of The Argus Foundation.

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