David vs. Goliath: How North Port Asks Permission to Borrow — While Smith and Neunder Nearly Doubled the County's Debt Without Asking Anyone

By Sarasota County Facts Research Team Published: March 31, 2026

In 1959, a patch of cow pastures and pine flatwoods in south Sarasota County incorporated as the City of North Port. It had 178 residents.

Today, North Port has more than 88,000 people — a 19% jump in just three years and roughly 55% growth since 2010 — across 104 square miles, the largest city by land area in Sarasota County. (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS / 2023 estimate, as reported by WGCU.)

That growth happened under a rule that almost no other city in Florida lives by: North Port cannot issue debt without voter approval. Not bonds. Not loans. Debt of any kind. The City of North Port itself explained the rule to its own voters in plain language earlier this year, telling them ahead of a May 2025 special election that "the City Charter does not allow the City to issue any debt without first obtaining voter approval." (City of North Port; Suncoast News, Feb. 2025.)

Read that again. The fastest-growing city in Sarasota County — absorbing tens of thousands of new residents, building infrastructure across a hundred square miles of former ranchland — cannot borrow a dollar unless the people who have to pay it back say yes. Even borrowing to clean up after a hurricane required a referendum.

Now look north, to the Sarasota County Commission. From FY2022 through FY2025, Commissioners Mark Smith and Joe Neunder voted for every record budget and every bond issuance that nearly doubled the county's bonded debt — up 76 percent — from $629.8 million to $1.11 billion. No referendum. No charter vote. No question put to the people who pay the bills. They voted, the staff issued the bonds, and the debt was added. (Sarasota County CAFR FY2022–FY2025, audited.)

That is the story of David and Goliath in Sarasota County. One city asks permission. The other commission writes the check on your account.

The Numbers

Here is what fiscal discipline looks like next to its absence:

BY THE NUMBERS: North Port's population is up roughly 19% since 2020, on a charter that requires voter approval for any debt. Over the same period, Sarasota County's bonded debt nearly doubled — up 76 percent — from $629.8M to $1.11B, with no referendum. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS; City of North Port; Sarasota County CAFR FY2022–FY2025.

A City That Asks Permission

The provision in North Port's charter is extraordinarily rare in Florida. It does not just cover general-obligation bonds. It covers any debt issuance — which is why, in 2025, the city had to call a special election just to ask voters for permission to borrow in the event of a future hurricane or declared emergency. Even disaster debt requires a referendum. (City of North Port, May 13, 2025 special election summary.)

That rule does something important. It forces city leaders to tell voters exactly what they want to build, exactly what it will cost, and exactly how it will be repaid — before the money is borrowed. It requires transparency. It requires persuasion. It requires trust. And sometimes the answer is no: in that same May 2025 special election, North Port voters rejected a bond to fund a new police headquarters. The system works. The charter held. The city did not borrow.

The Sarasota County Commission operates under no such constraint. When they wanted to add hundreds of millions in new bonded debt, they approved each issuance, year after year, without ever putting any of it to the voters. When they wanted to authorize $21.36 million to buy a two-acre waterfront site at 1500 Stickney Point Road — paying $18.1 million for a property the seller had bought for $8.9 million in January 2024 — they voted 4-1 to borrow the money and called it "parkland." (Sarasota County property records; Your Observer, Feb. 2026; Business Observer, May 2026.)

North Port builds with permission. The county builds on your credit.

The Working-Class Engine

Talk to people in North Port and the geography of who pays for what becomes obvious quickly. Roughly nine in ten of the city's workforce commutes out of the city for work — to hospitals in Sarasota, offices in Venice, construction sites across the county. They leave before dawn and come home after dark. They are nurses, electricians, teachers, first responders, retail workers, tradespeople. The median household income in North Port is well below the figures the county advertises in its "average income" presentations. (U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023.)

They are not the residents who eat at the waterfront restaurant the county just authorized $21.36 million to buy. North Port is the bedroom community that powers Sarasota County's economy. Its residents do the work. They pay the property taxes. They absorb the growth. The county spends the money along the Sarasota–Siesta Key corridor.

They Built a City. From Nothing.

From 178 people in 1959 to more than 88,000 today. From cow pastures to CoolToday Park, where the Atlanta Braves play spring training. From two stoplights to Wellen Park, one of the country's top-selling master-planned communities. Quicken Loans named North Port the second-fastest-growing city in the United States in its 2023 ranking, and the city has remained one of the fastest-growing in the country since. About 30 percent of the city's land area remains open space or conservation — they grew explosively and still preserved nearly a third of their landscape. (City of North Port; WGCU; Patch, 2023.)

They did this while providing their own police department, their own fire-rescue, their own public works, their own utilities. When a family moves to North Port, the city serves them — not the county commission.

Which raises the question the county cannot answer. If North Port built itself, services itself, and cannot borrow a nickel without asking its own voters — what, exactly, did the county need $876 million in new spending and debt for?

NORTH PORT FAMILIES CRUSHED

County added $876M in overhead while North Port built a city on its own.

Hurricane Ian — The Test

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm and tore through North Port.

Holiday Park — a mobile-home community that was home to hundreds of working families — was almost completely destroyed. Homes flattened. Possessions scattered across acres of debris. Families who had little to begin with lost everything.

North Port responded with its own emergency services, coordinated with state and federal agencies, and began the long process of rebuilding. It is still rebuilding.

Over the same years, the Sarasota County Commission added $876 million in new spending and debt — the largest fiscal expansion in the county's modern record. Where did the money go? Not to North Port's two-lane US 41 that backs up for miles every rush hour. Not to disproportionate disaster recovery for the city that took the hit. The county's General Government spending now ranks #5 of 66 in the state at $4,394 per resident (a figure that includes custodial pass-through funds; operational is about $652 per resident). The largest capital project in the county-seat campus is the $75.1 million Administration Center — Project 83203, approved 5-0 in January 2023 with Commissioner Smith seconding (Res. 2023-022), funded substantially by bonds (the project predates this commission; the financing and approvals were voted on its watch with no objections recorded). The most recent major land acquisition was $18.1 million for a two-acre site near the Siesta Key bridge — total authorization $21.36 million, borrowed.

BY THE NUMBERS: Sarasota County ranks #5 of 66 in the state for General Government spending at $4,394 per person (a figure that includes custodial pass-throughs; operational ≈ $652) — while a city of more than 88,000 people inside the county's jurisdiction cannot borrow a dollar without asking its own voters. Source: FL EDR FY2024; City of North Port.

The Growth Excuse

Here is the part to watch. County administrators routinely justify higher spending by citing population growth. "The county is growing," the budget presentations say. "We need to spend more to serve more people."

But where is the growth? Mostly in North Port — the city that provides its own services and asks its own voters before borrowing. The growth Sarasota County uses to justify its spending is happening inside a city the county does not have to fund the day-to-day operations of.

North Port is the excuse. North Port is not the destination of the money.

The Two-Lane Reality

Anyone who has driven US 41 through North Port at rush hour knows the ground truth. A city the size of many Florida county seats — with infrastructure designed for a fraction of its current population — choking through two-lane intersections that needed signals years ago. The roads that nine in ten of the city's workers use to commute out of town every morning are a backed-up grind.

But the county found $21.36 million for two acres on the water. The county nearly doubled its bonded debt to $1.11 billion. The county ranks #5 of 66 in the state for General Government spending. The county had money for everything except the infrastructure the fastest-growing city inside its jurisdiction desperately needs.

This Is Joe Neunder's District

North Port is in District 4. Joe Neunder represents District 4.

Joe Neunder campaigned on "small government, low taxes, balanced budgets." Then he voted yes on the budgets that produced $876 million in new spending and debt, yes on the bond issuances that nearly doubled the county's bonded debt to $1.11 billion, and yes on the $2.5 billion FY2026 budget that appropriates $41.7 million from the General Fund's reserves. He voted for spending that grew six times faster than population.

His district — the district where working families commute out before dawn, where Ian flattened Holiday Park, where two-lane roads can't carry the traffic — got the tax bills. The Sarasota–Siesta Key corridor got the $21 million.

North Port built a city of more than 88,000 people without being able to borrow a dollar without voter approval. The county commission nearly doubled its debt without asking anyone. Joe Neunder voted for every record budget and every bond.

The Choice on August 18

Jim DeNiro, a retired Sarasota Police Department sergeant with about 30 years of service, is challenging Neunder in the August 18 Republican primary. He has been endorsed by the Florida Police Benevolent Association and the National Association of Police Organizations. He has called the county's record $2.5 billion budget worthy of "careful scrutiny, continued oversight, and a renewed focus on fiscal discipline."

That is what North Port's charter has required for 67 years. Careful scrutiny. Continued oversight. Fiscal discipline. Every dollar borrowed requires voter approval.

We make no endorsement and will hold every challenger to the same standard we apply to the incumbents. But the contrast on borrowing alone is worth a closer look from District 4 voters.

Every number above is drawn from the county's own audited records. Read the derivations, then share this with a neighbor who's wondering why everything costs more. The Republican primary is August 18.

Sources

• City of North Port — Charter prohibits debt issuance without voter approval; May 13, 2025 special election summary
• The Suncoast News & Scoop (Feb. 2025) — North Port Commission referendum questions ahead of May 13 special election
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (2023) — North Port population estimate and growth rate, via WGCU
• Sarasota County CAFR FY2021–FY2025 (audited) — Spending, bonds, debt, and reserve data
• Your Observer (Feb. 13, 2026) — Stickney Point Boatyard $18.1M purchase
• Business Observer (May 5, 2026) — Stickney Point financing, 4-1 vote, Knight in opposition
• Sarasota News Leader — Boatyard total authorization $21.36M, financing details
• Sarasota County property records — Big Main Street LLC January 2024 purchase at $8.9M
• Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) FY2024 — Per-capita general-government spending rankings
• Quicken Loans (2023) — North Port ranked second-fastest-growing U.S. city
• WGCU / PBS Southwest Florida — North Port population and history feature

Sarasota County Facts is a project of the Local Government Accountability, a nonpartisan 501(c)(4) research organization. Every figure is sourced from the county's own audited records. Every claim is sourced. Every number is verified. Truth is an absolute defense under Florida defamation law. If any official named in this article wishes to respond, we will publish their response in full.

Sarasota County Facts — Follow the Money. Know the Truth.