The 60-second version
- Your county government's spending and debt now work out to $6,002 for every person in Sarasota County — $24,008 for a family of four.
- Four years ago it was $3,648 per person. Population grew about 7.8% in that time — the money grew far faster.
- You pay for this through property taxes, fire and EMS assessments, and fees — whether or not any rate “went up.”
- It is fixable: the LGAI Citizens Savings & Efficiency Platform identifies $49.85M to $140.5M a year in savings from the county's own budget, without cutting a single service.
Every number is from the county's own audited reports and adopted budgets, cited to the document. (“Pro forma” means projected from the county's own adopted plan; an ACFR is a government's audited annual financial report.)
Sarasota Fiscal Truth — The Facts + The Solution
Your county government: $3,648 to $6,002 per person in four budgets.
Take what Sarasota County government spends in a year, add the debt it still owes, and divide by every person it serves. For seven years that all-in figure barely moved — $3,229 in FY2016, $3,648 in FY2022. Then Commissioners Neunder and Smith were elected in November 2022. Across their four full budget years it reaches $6,002 per person* — $24,008 for a family of four, up 65% from the year before their watch.
You and your family ultimately pay this. It shows up in higher property tax bills, fire and EMS assessments, fees, and the broader cost of living. See exactly how these costs reach your household →
This is the amount of county spending and debt that ultimately has to be covered by the people who live here.
| FY | Spending / person | Debt / person | All-in / person | Family of 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2016 | $1,664 | $1,566 | $3,229 | $12,916 |
| FY2017 | $1,716 | $1,519 | $3,235 | $12,940 |
| FY2018 | $1,731 | $1,437 | $3,168 | $12,672 |
| FY2019 | $1,793 | $1,475 | $3,268 | $13,072 |
| FY2020 | $1,852 | $1,493 | $3,346 | $13,384 |
| FY2021 | $1,734 | $1,601 | $3,335 | $13,340 |
| FY2022 | $1,820 | $1,829 | $3,648 | $14,592 |
| FY2023 | $2,087 | $1,780 | $3,866 | $15,464 |
| FY2024 | $2,040 | $2,101 | $4,141 | $16,564 |
| FY2025 | $2,499 | $2,523 | $5,022 | $20,088 |
| FY2026* | $3,019 | $2,982 | $6,002 | $24,008 |
Every number above: Sarasota County government only — audited ACFR spending + outstanding debt per resident. FY2026 pro forma. Population by year from state EDR estimates (487,640 for FY2025, held flat for FY2026).
* FY2026 is pro forma: the county's audited spending-realization history (58.32% of adopted gross) applied to the Board-adopted FY2026 budget, plus FY2025 audited debt grown by FY2025's actual net increase. Actual results are expected to meet or exceed these figures; the audited FY2026 ACFR (early 2027) supersedes them.
- Their four county budgets, FY2023–FY2026
- $3,866 → $6,002
- Sarasota County only — spending + debt outstanding, all-in per person. First full year to FY2026 pro forma*.
- Per family of four, FY2026
- $24,008
- Sarasota County only. Was $14,592 in FY2022, the last full year before their watch*.
- Population, same period
- +7.8%
- 452,378 (FY2022) → 487,640 (FY2025 EDR, held flat for FY2026).
The full story, organized
First time here? Start with these three
Then see the individual records: Joe Neunder · Mark Smith
The Problem
The County Story
The full diagnostic: spending against population, rankings with their strongest counter-argument, department-level growth, and every board vote since the Nov 2022 swearing-in.
At your kitchen table
What It Costs You
The burden translated to one household — per resident and per family of four — and the four cities that push the full local-government bill higher still.
The Briefing
Sarasota in 15 Charts
The whole story as a visual briefing — one insight per chart, presentation-ready, every figure from the locked datasets behind this site.
The Solution
LGAI Citizens Savings & Efficiency Platform
Six areas, twenty tactics, four moratoriums the board could adopt at its next meeting — $49.85M to $140.5M a year, without cutting a single service.
Show your work
Data & Sources
Every dataset as a download, the complete methodology including the errors it caught, and the full corpus of source documents behind every figure.