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A visual briefing

Sarasota in 15 charts

Fifteen charts that tell the whole story. Every figure comes straight out of the county's own audited financial reports, adopted budgets, and published board minutes, the same source documents used everywhere else on this site.

One tip before you start: when you see a per-person figure, multiply by four to get the number for a family of four.

*FY2026 figures are pro forma — projected from the budget the board itself adopted. The audited FY2026 ACFR (the county's annual audited financial report, due early 2027) supersedes them. Full methodology and sources

Flat for seven years, then a steep climb: $3,229 to $6,002 per person

Look at 2016 through 2022. The all-in cost of county government per person barely moves. Then this board's budgets start, and in four years it jumps 65%.

Note: the y-axis starts at $2,500 rather than zero, so the change over time is easier to see. The numbers themselves are exactly as reported.
  • Before FY2023
  • This board's budgets
  • FY2026 pro forma*

What this means: Seven years of budgets kept this number basically flat. The four budgets since added more per person than the previous seven combined. That's not the calendar doing it.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Both halves grew: spending and debt per person

It would be one thing if this were just borrowing, or just spending. It's both. The two lines rise together after FY2022.

  • Spending per person
  • Debt outstanding per person
  • First full year of this board's budgets

Bottom line: There's no single bad decision to point at here. The operating budget and the debt load climbed side by side.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Same spike, in household terms: $12,916 to $24,008 a year

This is the same chart translated to the number a family actually carries. Flat for years. Then the climb.

Note: the y-axis starts at $10,000 rather than zero, so the change over time is easier to see. The numbers themselves are exactly as reported.
  • Before FY2023
  • This board's budgets
  • FY2026 pro forma*

A family of four's share of county government went up $9,416 a year in the four budgets since FY2022. The seven years of budgets before that barely moved it.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Whose budgets are these?

Neunder and Smith were elected in November 2022, and FY2023 was their first full fiscal year. Every bar to the right of the dashed line is a budget this board adopted.

Note: the y-axis starts at $2,500 rather than zero, so the change over time is easier to see. The numbers themselves are exactly as reported.
  • Before Neunder & Smith
  • Their four full years
  • FY2026 pro forma*
  • Neunder & Smith elected Nov 2022 — first full FY2023

County government only. Each bar is spending per person plus debt outstanding per person; tap any bar for the split. Black is the years before Neunder and Smith, dark red is their four full years, and the hatched bar is FY2026 pro forma*. The numbers are exactly as reported.

The years of acceleration are exactly the years this board has controlled the budget. Somebody voted for every one of these bars.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Population grew 22% — spending grew 121%

Both lines start at 100 in FY2016. Population ends at 122. Spending ends at 221.

  • Spending (FY2016 = 100)
  • Population (FY2016 = 100)
  • First full year of this board's budgets

Why it matters: The usual answer is 'we're growing.' Fine, but growth explains only a fraction of this. If spending had simply tracked population, the per-person figure would be flat, and it isn't.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Where the new money went

The eight largest departmental increases from FY2023 actual to FY2026 adopted, ranked in dollars.

  • Increase, FY23→FY26

These are the specific budget lines that grew. A reasonable person would start here and ask what each increase actually bought.

Source: county budget line items, FY2023 actual vs FY2026 adopted, cleaned of accounting reclassifications.

Debt outstanding: $625.5M then, $1.45B now

County debt was flat to falling before FY2023. Under this board's budgets it turned sharply upward.

Note: the y-axis starts at $500M rather than zero, so the change over time is easier to see. The numbers themselves are exactly as reported.
  • Before FY2023
  • This board's budgets
  • FY2026 pro forma*

Bottom line: Remember that debt is just spending that hasn't been paid for yet. Every dollar borrowed now shows up on somebody's future tax bill.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

Debt per person: $1,566 to $2,982

You'd think population growth would at least dilute the debt. It didn't. The per-person share rose anyway. (This is debt outstanding per person, not annual debt-service payments.)

Note: the y-axis starts at $1,000 rather than zero, so the change over time is easier to see. The numbers themselves are exactly as reported.
  • Before FY2023
  • This board's budgets
  • FY2026 pro forma*

More residents arrived to share the debt, and each one's share still grew.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

And that's just the county. Add the four cities.

Stack all five local governments and the FY2026 figure goes from $6,002 to $10,420 per person.

  • All five governments
  • County only

If you live in the City of Sarasota, North Port, Venice, or Longboat Key, you're paying for a city government on top of the county one. The combined bill is what your household actually carries.

Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget. Source: locked stacked series — all five local governments' ACFRs and adopted budgets.

Wave 1 savings vs. one year of growth

The board-approved budget grew an average of $162.3M a year over the term. Wave 1 of the savings menu, which needs no layoffs and cuts no services, is worth $30.15M to $83.64M a year.

  • Annual amount
  • Savings

Put plainly: The savings sitting on the table right now are roughly the size of a full year's spending growth. That's not a rounding error.

Source: LGAI savings model — benchmarks applied to audited FY2026 budget bases. Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.

The top 10 quick wins, ranked

Earliest wave first, then the largest guaranteed floor. The solid bar is the conservative low estimate and the faded bar is the upper range.

  • Guaranteed floor
  • Upper range

Each of these is a specific tactic with a budget line attached. Any commissioner could put any one of them on next week's agenda.

Source: LGAI savings model — benchmarks applied to audited FY2026 budget bases.

$49.85M to $140.5M a year, in six areas

The full savings menu by area. Notice procurement: that one area is worth more than the next four combined.

  • Low estimate
  • High estimate

Even the low end works out to $102 per resident, every year, without touching a single service.

Source: LGAI savings model — benchmarks applied to audited FY2026 budget bases.

How the board votes on money

Share of motions passed with zero No votes, by category (motion counts in parentheses). The fiscal items, meaning spending, tax, and debt, sail through nearly untouched. What little dissent exists shows up in land use.

  • Unanimous share
  • Highlighted

Out of 992 recorded motions, 2 failed. Every millage rate and every final budget adoption passed. Nobody inside the chamber is contesting the spending trajectory, so it falls to the people outside it.

Source: the board's own published minutes — all 992 recorded motions, Nov 2022 to present.

The real local burden: county plus four cities

The county's all-in cost is $24,008 per family of four. Add the City of Sarasota, North Port, Venice, and Longboat Key and the total reaches $41,680. FY2026, spending plus debt.

  • Per family of four
  • Highlighted

Why we built this chart: State rankings compare county governments only. They ignore the city layered on top, so no published ranking captures this combined figure. As far as we can tell, almost nobody publishes it this way. We think it's the number that matters most.

Source: locked county and combined county + cities series — audited ACFRs and adopted budgets for all five governments, FY2026 adopted basis.

What Wave 1 would do to your bill

If the board adopted just Wave 1, a family of four's FY2026 share would drop by $247 to $686 a year. (Illustrative: we applied the savings directly to the per-family figure.)

  • Per family of four
  • Savings

This is the before-and-after of a single board vote. No layoffs. No service reductions. Contracts re-bid, licenses audited, debt refinanced.

Source: LGAI savings model — benchmarks applied to audited FY2026 budget bases. Source: locked county series — audited ACFRs FY2016–FY2025; FY2026 pro forma from the adopted budget.