HOW THEY TAKE MORE WHILE TELLING YOU THEY TOOK LESS
THE MILLAGE RATE TRICK
WHAT THEY TOLD YOU
“We cut the millage rate!”
FY2023
3.45
mills
FY2025
3.39
mills
Sounds great, right?
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
FY2023
Rate: 3.4463 mills
× Taxable: $82.54B
$270.2M
collected
FY2025
Rate: 3.3856 mills
× Taxable: $103.94B
$334.3M
collected
+$64 MILLION MORE COLLECTED
They cut the RATE ~1.8% but collections rose 23.7%
THE ROLLED-BACK RATE
The rolled-back rate is the millage that would collect the same revenue as last year. Anything above it is a hidden tax increase.
Rolled-back rate
3.4368
same money as last year
What they set
3.8429
aggregate rate adopted
11.82% ABOVE the rolled-back rate
That's a hidden tax increase disguised as a rate cut.
Source: Sarasota News Leader
THE SIMPLE ANALOGY
Your boss cuts your hourly wage by 5%
But makes you work 20% more hours
Your paycheck goes UP
But your boss brags about the pay cut
That's what Neunder & Smith did with your taxes.
THE FOIL: NORTH PORT
While the county collected $64M more under a “reduced” rate, North Port held its millage flat at 3.7667 for five straight years with zero debt millage (NP adopted budgets, unaudited; corroborated in its audited ACFR).
$334.3M (FY2025 ad valorem) − $270.2M (FY2023) = $64.1M more collected despite a lower millage rate. Source: Sarasota County budget summary.
THE VOTE
Every millage rate was UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED
No discussion. No public input.
ZERO budget or bond NO votes from Neunder or Smith — FY2022–FY2025.
Source: Your Observer, July 14, 2023
SarasotaCountyFacts.org
Data verified: 227,637 financial records from 485 official documents
