Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/215277
A ROUGH OUTLINE The CRA Extension Study Committee members work at their Nov. 20 meeting. Photo by Stan Zimmerman THE DOWNTOWN SARASOTA COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY STUDY COMMITTEE VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO RECOMMEND A 30-YEAR EXTENSION OF THE DISTRICT AND TO KEEP 1986 AS THE BASE TAX VALUE YEAR By Stan Zimmerman City Editor It was decision time. For months, the Downtown put downtown back on its feet. Stores were Sarasota Community Redevelopment Area closing, and malls were said to be stealing the Extension Study Committee has met to pon- heart of many town centers. The scheme was der, in a systematic manner, the future of a called TIF — tax-increment financing. property tax scheme worth perhaps a quarter of a billion dollars into the future. But The scheme set the property tax revenue benchmark at the 1986 Wednesday evening, level. Any difference in Nov. 20, was time for How can you expect a local elected income after that date judgment. official to be anything less than political? — for both city and Way back in 1986, the county property tax Fredd Atkins City and County of collections — would Former Mayor Sarasota cut a deal to accrue to something City of Sarasota use a new scheme to called a Community