THE DATA
Every Number Is Sourced
227,637 verified financial records across 485 primary-source documents (15,983 pages, as of June 17, 2026). No anonymous data. No guesswork. Just the facts.
All data below comes from official Sarasota County government records — the same documents the county files with the state of Florida every year. We have not changed any numbers. We have only organized them so you can see what your commissioners approved.
SECTION 1
Sarasota vs All 66 Florida Counties
Per-capita spending, FY2024, Method B (EDR minus custodial pass-throughs)
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| Rank | County | Population | Per Capita | Peer? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monroe | 84,147 | $7,029 | |
| 6 | Manatee | 455,356 | $4,275 | PEER |
| 7 | Collier | 408,381 | $4,041 | PEER |
| 14 | SARASOTA | 479,027 | $3,290 | |
| 21 | Lee | 827,016 | $2,825 | PEER |
| 24 | Palm Beach | 1,545,905 | $2,758 | PEER |
| 32 | St. Johns | 331,479 | $2,521 | PEER |
| 35 | Pinellas | 971,218 | $2,348 | PEER |
| 40 | Hillsborough | 1,560,449 | $2,135 | PEER |
Sarasota ranks #14 of 66 — higher than 79% of all Florida counties.
Source: FL EDR FY2024 expenditure data — 66 counties with matchable population data
Basis: EDR-published county populations, FY2024 (Sarasota 479,027) — all 66 counties on the identical EDR basis.
Verified: SCF-RankVerification_2026-Jun-12 — every rank, per-capita figure, and population in this table hand-recomputed from the FL EDR FY2024 expenditure workbook (Method B = total expenditures minus custodial pass-through funds, divided by EDR's own published FY2024 population for each county).
Where Sarasota Stands Out — Category Rankings
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| Category | Sarasota Rank | $/Person | #1 County |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Government | #5 / 66 | $4,394 | Pinellas |
| Physical Environment | #7 / 66 | $548 | DeSoto |
| Culture/Recreation | #10 / 66 | $161 | Manatee |
| Public Safety | #30 / 66 | $778 | Monroe |
| Human Services | #31 / 66 | $61 | Miami-Dade |
| Transportation | #48 / 66 | $202 | Liberty |
General Government (admin/overhead) is #5 statewide at $4,394/person. The bloat is in bureaucracy, not services.
Source: FL EDR FY2024, account codes 511-519
Basis: EDR-published county populations, FY2024 (Sarasota 479,027) — all 66 counties on the identical EDR basis.
Verified: SCF-RankVerification_2026-Jun-12 — category ranks, per-person figures, and the #1-county column recomputed from the FL EDR FY2024 expenditure workbook (each county's category total ÷ its EDR-published FY2024 population).
SECTION 2
Five-Year Spending Explosion
CAFR Total Primary Government — the spending commissioners actually control
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| Year | Total Spending | YoY Change | Bonds | Bond Change | Per Capita |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | $766M | — | $484M | — | $1,734 |
| FY2022 | $823M | +7.5% | $630M | +30.0% | $1,820 |
| FY2023 | $969M | +17.7% | $666M | +5.7% | $2,087 |
| FY2024 | $977M | +0.9% | $866M | +30.0% | $2,040 |
| FY2025 | $1.22B | +24.7% | $1.11B | +28.3% | $2,499 |
+48%
Spending Growth
$823M to $1.22B (FY2022–FY2025)
+76%
Bond Growth
$630M to $1.11B (FY2022–FY2025)
+24.7%
FY2025 Spike
FY2024 to FY2025
Source: Sarasota County CAFR FY2021-2025, Statement of Activities + Statement of Net Position
Basis: total county population by fiscal year, county ACFR (FY2025: 487,640).
Endpoints (FY2022, FY2025) verified against county ACFRs; interim years from the same EDR/ACFR series.
SECTION 3
Your City's Total Government Burden
County + city combined per-capita spending, FY2024
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| If You Live In... | County/Person | City/Person | Combined | Family of 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Longboat Key | $3,290 | $8,094 | $11,385 | $45,539 |
| City of Sarasota* | $3,290 | $4,948 | $8,238 | $32,952 |
| Venice | $3,290 | $4,291 | $7,582 | $30,327 |
| North Port | $3,290 | $2,727 | $6,018 | $24,072 |
| Unincorporated | $3,290 | $0 | $3,290 | $13,162 |
Longboat Key residents pay 3.5x more than unincorporated residents for combined government.
What this table measures: TOTAL city spending per resident (all functions — police, fire, parks, utilities, administration). This is distinct from the General-Government-only (admin) figures used elsewhere on this site. Example: North Port runs $643/resident in General-Government admin but $2,727/resident in total city spending — both are correct; they measure different things.
*City of Sarasota: FY2024 Adopted Budget, total expenditures all funds ($286,713,513 ÷ 57,943 residents = $4,948/resident); all other city rows are FY2024 EDR municipal expenditure data.
Source: EDR FY2024 county + municipal expenditure data
Basis: EDR-published populations, FY2024; county and city figures both exclude custodial pass-through funds (Method B). Combined and family-of-four cells are computed from unrounded per-person figures and rounded once.
SECTION 4
The $876 Million Breakdown
Combined spending + debt increase since Neunder & Smith took office (CAFR FY2022 to FY2025)
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| Metric | FY2022 | FY2025 | Increase | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Spending | $823M | $1.22B | +$395M | +48% |
| Bonded Debt | $630M | $1.11B | +$481M | +76% |
| COMBINED | $1.45B | $2.33B | +$876M | +60% |
| Population | 452,378 | 487,640 | +35,262 | +7.8% |
$1,797
Per Citizen in NEW Obligations
$7,189
Per Family of 4 in NEW Obligations
County-wide, spending grew 6× faster than the population — bonds 10× faster. Count only the population the county actually serves (excluding self-funded North Port), and the debt burden grew 11.9× faster than the people carrying it.
Source: Sarasota County CAFR FY2022 and FY2025, independently audited by CliftonLarsonAllen LLP
Basis: the $1,797/person and $7,189/family figures use total county population, CAFR FY2025 (487,640); general-government per-capita comparisons (e.g. $4,394, #5 of 66) use the EDR FY2024 countywide population (479,027).
Debt basis: the “Bonded Debt” row above is bonds payable, the instrument the Commission authorizes by roll-call vote (+76%). The county's totaldebt — bonds plus loans, leases and other long-term obligations — rose $827.3M to $1,230.3M (+$403.0M, +48.7%). Using total debt in place of bonds gives a combined $798.4M rather than $876.4M. Both are exact against the audited reports; we publish the bonded basis and disclose the total-debt basis here.
Population basis. Per-resident and per-family figures use Sarasota County's official population for the relevant year: the EDR FY2024 countywide figure (479,027) for general-government per-capita comparisons, and the CAFR FY2025 figure (487,640) for spending- and debt-growth figures. Sarasota County's recent population growth was concentrated in the City of North Port, an incorporated municipality that levies its own taxes and funds its own infrastructure — roads, utilities, and city services. County government provides countywide constitutional services (Sheriff, Clerk, courts, elections, health) to all residents including North Port's, but municipal infrastructure inside incorporated cities is not a county expense. County per-resident spending and debt should therefore be read against the population the county directly serves; growth driven by a self-funding city does not, by itself, justify county spending or debt increases.
The 28 Facts use the served-population basis (county minus North Port); the full method is on each fact's page.
See The Full Case
28 facts against the incumbents, each backed by audited data and independent reporting.