Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/281176
businessmen as the electorate, the time exten- sion of Sarasota's Community Redevelopment Agency faces a tougher audience. Right now, the city's Finance Office is work- ing to balance out the books and arrange the budgets so if the clock figuratively strikes midnight on the CRA, it can gracefully bow out of operation. FINAL CRA EXTENSION REPORT ISSUED After nine months of study and debate, an ad hoc CRA Extension Study Committee with 10 people produced its final report this month. Copies were distributed to the CRA Advisory Board members to study in advance of a March 20 meeting when the ad hoc committee will test-drive its sales pitch. The study com- mittee members will deliver the real thing to the Sarasota City and County commissions during a joint session on April 1. The city does not want to hear the peals mark- ing midnight. Since inception in 1986, the CRA has pulled in $57 million in tax-increment finances and spent it all downtown. The sec- ond paragraph of the final report's executive summary provides the figure of $76 million for the total amount of receipts through the end of the 30-year CRA term. It is not until Page 33 of the report that you see an estimate of the total income if the CRA is extended another three decades. It is a staggering $416 million for the total period, assuming a flat property tax rate and Funding from the CRA is being used to pay for cost overruns in the State Street garage project. Image courtesy City of Sarasota Sarasota News Leader March 21, 2014 Page 68