Sarasota Livin'

Last week the Sarasota City Commission started looking at the next years budget requests. This is always a hard job. We all want to spend much more than we can afford.

It is great that the City of Sarasota has a very good bond rating with some $14 million in "reserve funds" ... for a rainy day. Now you would think that with the wild increase in property values in the City that they would be able to kick in another $million or two this year.

Not even close (is that a susprise)..

I am all for paying a fair wage but when that comes with a defined benefit pension with free health care for life... that is just too good a deal. I don't have that and I have a pretty good job with a good company. I have a 401K with company matching and some profit sharing.

We are kicking in an extra $2.4 million to help pay for rising costs of pensions and benefits... I guess it is OK to spend more on keeping parks and landscaping clean..

Sarasota backs off tax hike this year

Commissioners plan to dip into reserves to avoid a tax increase.

By MIKE SAEWITZ

SARASOTA -- Instead of possibly raising taxes, commissioners plan to pull $2.8 million from the city's $14 million reserve fund to pay for more park maintenance and increase employee salaries.

The money from the reserves will likely allow the commissioners to set a tax rate today that will be slightly lower than last year's.

"This was the most prudent way to do this budget this year," said City Commissioner Mary Anne Servian.

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In the next few months, they'll likely hold a public hearing about a potential 16 percent sewer rate hike. They'll also discuss how to pay for a new police station. The commission is still considering funding sources for a new spring-training stadium for the Cincinnati Reds.

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The commissioners gave preliminary nods to spending $1.2 million to bring competitive wages to more than 200 employees. The city will also pay a living wage of $26,750 to 50 employees who were making less than that.

And the commissioners plan to set aside an additional $2.4 million in a post-employment benefit trust fund that will now have close to $5.9 million. The trust fund was created to save money for rising costs such as employees' health and life insurance in the future.

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The condition of the city's parks has become a neighborhood issue, especially as downtown has been cleaned up and redeveloped. The commissioners want to spend about $300,000 on new hires to enhance the landscaping around the city.