Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/281176
completing multi-million dollar projects, it is now running on about $56,000 per year. "Not enough to hold meetings for," joked one DID member. A more parallel situation involves the St. Armands Business Improvement District (BID), which also levies a property tax sur- charge. It faced an expiration date in 2013, by which all bills needed to be paid and books closed in case the property owners around the shopping district on St. Armands Key failed to renew the levy in a referendum. The first vote failed, but a second was scheduled with only days to spare, and the measure passed. Since the BID had to start from scratch with no carry-forward funds, it, too, has been struggling to pay its bills, including its legal expenses related to a public records lawsuit over use of private email accounts for public business, which was settled. The CRA faces a similar fate. It expires in 2016, but instead of a group of self-interested The Downtown Sarasota Community Redevelopment Agency Extension Study Committee works on issues during a November 2013 meeting. Photo by Stan Zimmerman Sarasota News Leader March 21, 2014 Page 67