Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/211425
A $90,000 'IDEOLOGICAL RANT' Cattle rest under an oak in a field beside Fruitville Road east of Interstate 75. Photo by Rachel Hackney DRAFT REPORT ON FISCAL NEUTRALITY IN SARASOTA 2050 ELICITS OUTRAGE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUE By Cooper Levey-Baker Associate Editor This summer, Sarasota County asked a consult- Sarasota County inked a $90,000 deal with ing firm with ties to the Reagan Administration Tennessee's Laffer Associates in early to review the fiscal neutrality requirements September for the firm to analyze Sarasota in its Sarasota 2050 Plan. It got more than it 2050's fiscal neutrality regulations. The bargained for. A draft 2050 Plan, adopted version of the Laffer a decade ago, was It's completely ideologically created to encourreport is being derided as "awful," "extreme" motivated to discredit the smart growth age the construction and "beyond" what movement, but it's a completely of walkable, mixedthe county wanted inaccurate depiction of how smart growth use communities in — by urban planning fits into the history of planning. areas that had previexperts, longtime comously been closed to David Brain mission critics and development, largely Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies members of the comeast of Interstate 75. New College of Florida mission alike. For the past year, the