They cut the rate. They collected $64 million more.
Sarasota County Facts

EXPOSED RECORDS LIBRARY

Sources & Documents

Every claim on this site is backed by official government records. Download, verify, and share.

227,637 verified financial records across 485 primary-source documents (15,983 pages, as of June 17, 2026)

VERIFICATION

The Scope of Our Analysis

Before a single claim, the work. This is exactly what we read, counted, and cross-referenced — every figure traces to a public document you can open.

  • 485 primary-source government documents reviewed
  • 15,983 pages analyzed — 15,193 measured from PDF metadata + 790 estimated from archived web minutes (text-based)
  • ~799,150 lines of public record read
  • 692 MB (0.68 GB) of source files
  • 227,637 structured financial records cross-referenced
  • 4 jurisdictions: Sarasota County, North Port, Longboat Key, and Venice/other
  • 2021–2027 fiscal years covered

What we reviewed

Sarasota County

  • Adopted / Annual Budgets — FY2024–FY2027 · 13 documents · 4,067 pages
  • Board Agendas — FY2023 · 1 document · 5 pages
  • Board Minutes — FY2023–FY2026 · 259 documents · 1,262 pages
  • FL EDR Fiscal Data Sets · 14 documents · 292 pages
  • Other Primary-Source Documents — FY2023–FY2026 · 70 documents · 1,157 pages
  • Resolutions — FY2024–FY2026 · 85 documents · 265 pages

North Port

  • Adopted / Annual Budgets — FY2023–FY2026 · 7 documents · 2,752 pages
  • Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports — FY2021–FY2024 · 4 documents · 816 pages
  • FL EDR Fiscal Data Sets · 2 documents · 35 pages
  • Ordinances — FY2025 · 2 documents · 218 pages
  • Other Primary-Source Documents — FY2022–FY2025 · 12 documents · 876 pages

Longboat Key

  • FL EDR Fiscal Data Sets · 2 documents · 35 pages
  • Other Primary-Source Documents — FY2022–FY2025 · 6 documents · 2,633 pages

City of Sarasota

  • Other Primary-Source Documents — FY2023–FY2025 · 3 documents · 885 pages

Venice

  • FL EDR Fiscal Data Sets · 2 documents · 35 pages
  • Other Primary-Source Documents — FY2023–FY2025 · 3 documents · 650 pages

County Financial Reports (CAFRs)

Audited annual financial reports — the backbone of the $876M analysis. Every spending and debt number traces back to these documents.

Source: Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court / CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

County ACFR FY2025
FY20256.4 MB

County ACFR FY2025

Latest audited financials. +24.7% spending spike — largest single-year increase in the modern record (FY2021–FY2025 CAFR series).

County ACFR FY2024
FY202412 MB

County ACFR FY2024

Expenses grew 27.8% in one year. Revenue grew 3.5%. The structural deficit begins.

County ACFR FY2023
FY202311 MB

County ACFR FY2023

Net pension liability peaked at $449M — the high-water mark. By FY2025 it had declined to $372.7M.

County ACFR FY2022 (Full)
FY202223 MB

County ACFR FY2022 (Full)

The BASELINE year. Neunder and Smith take office. Spending: $823M. Bonds: $630M.

County ACFR FY2021
FY20216.1 MB

County ACFR FY2021

Pre-Neunder/Smith baseline. The last fiscal year before the spending explosion.

Property Appraiser Annual Reports

Property values, market trends, government land holdings, millage rates, exemptions, and new construction data.

Source: Sarasota County Property Appraiser (Bill Furst, CFA)

PA Annual Report 2025
202513 MB

PA Annual Report 2025

Latest assessment. 302K+ parcels. Government owns 39% of county land (143,729 acres).

PA Annual Report 2024
202414 MB

PA Annual Report 2024

Market value $154.3B (record). Taxable +10.27%. New construction: $3.6B. Full color with charts.

PA Annual Report 2023
20231.4 MB

PA Annual Report 2023

Post-COVID boom peak. Taxable value +15.18% in a single year.

PA Annual Report 2022
20223.6 MB

PA Annual Report 2022

First year under Neunder/Smith. Taxable value surged +22.48%.

PA Annual Report 2020
20201.6 MB

PA Annual Report 2020

Pre-pandemic baseline. Market $88.8B. Taxable growth +3.24%.

County Budget & Revenue Reports

Comprehensive financial reports, revenue/debt analysis, and impact assessments from the county.

Source: Sarasota County Government

Comprehensive Report FY2025
FY202531 MB

Comprehensive Report FY2025

Full financial overview. $2.5B budget. $1.11B in bonds. Reserve ratio dropped to 89%.

Comprehensive Report FY2024
FY202428 MB

Comprehensive Report FY2024

The year expenses grew 8x faster than revenue. $2.24B budget adopted.

Revenue & Debt FY2024
FY202420 MB

Revenue & Debt FY2024

Consolidated revenue sources and outstanding debt obligations.

Impact Report FY2025
FY202519 MB

Impact Report FY2025

County's own assessment of fiscal impact and service delivery.

Impact Report FY2024
FY20246.4 MB

Impact Report FY2024

Fiscal impact analysis for the year spending grew 27.8%.

City & Municipal Budgets

Adopted budgets for incorporated cities. North Port built a city for $6,018/person while the county spent $20,508/family.

Source: City of North Port / City of Sarasota

North Port Budget FY2026
FY20262.7 MB

North Port Budget FY2026

How a city of more than 88,000 manages growth responsibly. Compare to county's $2.5B.

North Port Budget FY2025
FY202530 MB

North Port Budget FY2025

Full adopted budget with department breakdowns.

City of Sarasota Budget FY2026
FY202636 MB

City of Sarasota Budget FY2026

City operations budget. Compare city spending per capita to county overhead.

City of Sarasota Budget FY2025
FY202522 MB

City of Sarasota Budget FY2025

Prior year city budget for trend comparison.

Tax Data & Millage Rates

FL Department of Revenue tax tables, property valuations, and Property Appraiser office budgets.

Source: FL Dept of Revenue / Property Appraiser

FL DOR — Tax Table 1
2024204 KB

FL DOR — Tax Table 1

Taxable values and millage rates for all 64 Sarasota County taxing authorities.

FL DOR — Tax Table 2
2024204 KB

FL DOR — Tax Table 2

Levied taxes by authority and district. Shows where every tax dollar goes.

Property Valuation Report
20251.5 MB

Property Valuation Report

County property valuation methodology and assessment data.

EFD-388 Financial Report
20241.2 MB

EFD-388 Financial Report

Emergency financial data report filed with the state.

PA Office Budget
202461 KB

PA Office Budget

Property Appraiser office operations budget.

PA Budget FY2024-25
2024-2512 KB

PA Budget FY2024-25

Fiscal year 2024-25 budget request.


Complete Data Archive

All source files from the war room — CAFRs, budgets, EDR data, and more.

2 documents

FL EDR State Data

2 consolidated entries (134 source files)
EDR
XLSX

FL EDR County Fiscal Data — All 67 Counties, FY2005-2024

73,442 expenditure records + 123,123 revenue records merged from 134 individual spreadsheets

~27 MB total (134 xlsx files) · Source: edr.state.fl.us/Content/local-government/data/revenues-expenditures/cntyfiscal.cfm

Raw data available on request
EDR
XLSX

FL EDR Municipal Fiscal Data — Venice, North Port, City of Sarasota, Longboat Key, FY2007-2024

Revenue and expenditure data for all 4 incorporated cities in Sarasota County

8 xlsx files · Source: edr.state.fl.us/Content/local-government/data/revenues-expenditures/munifiscal.cfm

Raw data available on request

Note: Some adopted budget PDFs exceed 20 MB. Large files may take longer to load in the viewer. Download recommended for files over 15 MB.


Methodology & Data Integrity

How we collect, validate, and present financial data.

Challenge Our Numbers

We invite anyone — county officials, journalists, political opponents, data professionals — to independently verify our analysis using the same government source documents linked above. Every script is available. Every data source is a public government website. If you find an error, we will correct it publicly.

Questions? Contact us

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