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Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Page 74 Merchants around Burns Court are considering joining the Downtown Improvement District (DID), an area of self-taxing property owners using the money for a variety of landscape and hardscape improvements. The Sarasota County Property Assessor's Office has appraised the property at $57 million, so the addition of Burns Square to the DID would bring in about $114,000 more each year. aside the decimals, the latter represents an 8.5 percent increase in taxes. For a home valued at $200,000, that represents a tax bill $49.58 higher than last year (or 14 cents per day). Commissioner Susan Chapman makes the motion to approve the proposed millage rate for the 2014 fiscal year; Commissioner Suzanne Atwell seconds it, and it passes 3-2 (Commissioners Paul Caragiulo and Mayor Shannon Snyder in the minority). The 3.1738 mills is a line in the sand; commissioners can The Sarasota County commissioners on July lower the rate later, but they cannot go above 10 unanimously adopt the tentative millage it when they adopt the final FY 2014 budget. rates for the 2014 fiscal year, leaving the total flat from the current year at 3.93. The total of the proposed 2014 fiscal year budget is As part of a $1 million wetland restoration at $1,032,677,312. That compares to the $897 the 72-acre Red Bug Slough nestled between million spending plan adopted for the cur- suburban development surrounding Clark rent fiscal year and $870 million in FY 2012. and Beneva Roads, bulldozers have dug up The last time the county budget exceeded $1 and removed much of the Cogongrass from billion was in FY 2010, when it was $1.003 canal banks and wetlands. The bulldozed million, according to documents provided by canal banks are being reshaped into gently the county's Office of Financial Planning. sloping "littoral shelves," where hundreds of Next month, city property owners will receive a Truth in Millage notice telling them how much each taxing body wants for the coming fiscal year. By law, it contains something called "the rollback rate," guaranteed to confuse many homeowners, because any tax rate higher than the "rollback" is often seen as a tax increase. For Sarasota city property owners, the rollback rate this year is 2.8480 mills, or $2.85 on every $1,000 of appraised value of the taxable property. But the tax rate decided by city commissioners on July 17 is a tad higher, at 3.1738 mills. Kicking native wetland plants such as pickerelweed and arrowhead will soon filter nutrient-rich rainwater. While the restoration project will not remove all of the Cogongrass at Red Bug Slough, it will make a big difference. The project — which is slated for a December completion — will bring improvements to three different segments of the preserve, restoring more than 4 acres of wetlands. The main goal is to improve the water quality in the waterways and swamps flowing through the preserve and then into Phillippi Creek and eventually Roberts Bay.