Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/285258
Some county commissioners are leery of a CRA extension. They are led by Commissioner Nora Patterson, who sat on the City Commission for two terms before her first election to the County Commission. On the city board, she helped apportion the CRA monies. The Sarasota City Commission is the governing body for the CRA; as such, it makes decisions unilaterally on how the money is spent, despite the fact that more than half of the funding comes from the county. The ad hoc committee plans two recommen- dations that may soften the threat of county hostility next week. It will recommend replac- ing the City Commission as the governing body with a seven-member board: two city and two county commissioners, plus three citizens appointed by the City Commission but not necessarily city residents. The second enticement is an offer to allow the county to "share" the CRA monies, with the fraction to be determined by the new sev- en-member governing board. Because the funding scheme uses the power of compound interest, the total amount of money over the next 30 years is estimated to come in at a level between $400 million and $500 million, an average of more than $10 mil- lion per year to be "shared" as well as spent in the geographically defined CRA district. The money is important to the city, especially because it is being used to supplement the Police Department budget, the city's largest annual expense. If the CRA were allowed to expire, the city would lose $3.5 million annu- ally. It is a very easy decision for the city commissioners to make when faced with the question of the CRA's extension. Conversely, The County Commission sits in session in January. Photo by Norman Schimmel Sarasota News Leader March 28, 2014 Page 41