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Sarasota News Leader June 28, 2013 OPINION Page 73 avail. And as county revenues took a nosedive in the still-lingering recession, the possibility for library expansion vanished. But the downtown Sarasota CRA continued to reap its share of county funds. izen advisory boards for analysis and advice, it also has a habit of ignoring their good work. to come is already devoted to paying off bond issues, subsidizing the police and other commitments. Thus, we can expect little new from the downtown CRA. If downtown cannot survive without the injection of $7 million per year in public money, maybe it deserves to die. That is not to say the county should abandon any commitment to the city, because the city is more important to the county's future than ever. But limiting the spending to downtown Sarasota seems shortsighted when so many other areas of the county need attention. % Eighty-five million dollars is a lot of property tax money. So before the county extends the downtown CRA, shuts it down or establishes North Port has requested a CRA, as has Ven- a new one elsewhere, taxpayers deserve to ice. But county commissioners, eyeing anoth- know how wisely the money was spent. er 30-year draw on their taxes for a small and specific area, are reluctant to make another Allowing the current CRA to expire will free long-term commitment. And long-term it must up both the city and county to spend their be, because to be successful, it has to use the money more widely. For the city, for example, "compound interest" model of property value the money could fund operation of the Lido growth. Beach pool. For the county, that long-awaitThe time for the downtown Sarasota CRA is ed Laurel library potentially could become a drawing to a close. Most of the funding still reality. By most measures, it has been a success. The CRA, coupled with a variety of downtown organizations that evolved over the past three decades, deserves a hearty round of congratulation. "Slum and blight" are a thing of the past. The DCRAESC now should engage in a round of financial analysis to determine what worked and what did not. Whole Foods, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune building, individual public-private partnerships, Police Department subsidies: Each of these could be explored to determine the enduring worth of the investments. These types of analyses will be invaluable should the county want to extend the current downtown Sarasota CRA or establish another one. While the county has a habit of asking cit- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Sarasota News Leader welcomes letters to the editor from its readers. Letters should be no more than 300 words in length, and include the name, street address and telephone number of the writer. Letters should be emailed to Letters@SarasotaNewsLeader.com, with "Letter to the Editor" in the subject line. Letters actually printed will be selected based on space available, subject matter and other factors. We reserve the right to edit any letters submitted for length, grammar, spelling, etc. All letters submitted become the property of The Sarasota News Leader.