Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/140592
Sarasota News Leader June 28, 2013 Page 29 cy Extension Study Committee. It held its sec- rent year, the county's contribution to the CRA ond meeting on Wednesday evening, June 26. is $3.5 million and the city's is $3.1 million. Chairman David Merrill asked for a financial history lesson, a "how much and for what" lecture by staff. He received it in spades. The "professor" was Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown. Brown took the committee through the steps of how the money is spent. One shift in the pattern appeared early in the presentation. In its first 15 years, the CRA focused tightly on "bricks and mortar," spending between 85 and 95 percent of its money on capital improvements to the area. Therefore, it put very little into "operating transfers" — only 5 or 10 percent of the money was shifted to other uses. State laws allow a wide range for CRA expenditures. The CRA receives funding from city and county property taxes, and it can spend the money only within the defined boundaries. The funds come from "tax increment financing," through which the property tax base value in the beginning year of 1986 is subtracted from the higher tax base total in subsequent years. However, in the past five years, the two catThe difference — the "increment" — grows as egories have flip-flopped. Bricks and mortar property tax revenue increases. For the cur- still account for the majority of expenditures Financial records show downtown Sarasota has benefited from the funding provided through the community redevelopment agency. Photo by Norman Schimmel