Sarasota Jobs in Jeopardy
Several Sarasota jobs could be lost as the Florida County attempts to balance its budget.
A higher-than-expected decrease in tax collections have forced Sarasota County officials to change their plan to balance the annual budget. Instead of relying on cash reserves from the housing boom, the county is considering making up to $13 million in cuts, which would affect parks, libraries, human services and public transit.
Options that would impact the public the most include cutting library jobs and closing one of the county's seven libraries, as well as privatizing management of Lido Pool and the tennis courts at Payne Park. There are more smaller cuts, including only painting lines at ball fields once each year, expected to save $90,000, or reducing the amount spend on new books and media at libraries by $107,000, or 30 percent.
According to an article by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, residents will be more than happy that suggested tax and fee increases will not be implemented, including a public service tax on electricity and water bills of up to 10 percent. Officials also decided against replacing parking meters in county lots at local beaches.
Unfortunately, figures show that Sarasota County's economy will not recover any time soon. Property tax collections are expected to decrease by one-third next year from $176 million during 2008. In addition, sales tax collections, which pay for police, parks and libraries, are expected to decrease by 14 percent this year.
Cutting jobs is not a new measure in Sarasota County, as officials instituted a hiring freeze two-and-a-half years ago and has since eliminated or laid off 250 workers. The majority of those positions involved employees who did not deal directly with the public, as the idea was to minimize the effect on county services while using more than $100 million in rainy day funds to negate the annual deficit.