This story was originally published by Suncoast Searchlight.
The Sarasota County Commission on Wednesday approved a $91.8 million budget amendment to fund hurricane recovery projects, a stark reminder that efforts to return the area to a sense of normalcy after a rash of major storms remains a work in progress.
The amendment comes after an unprecedented stretch of storms battered Florida’s Gulf Coast over the past several years. Since September 2022, Sarasota County has experienced five hurricanes — Ian, Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton — that caused widespread flooding and wind damage and helped drive disaster-related spending to $352 million over the past decade, according to county records.
Milton accounted for the largest share of those costs. County staff reported spending $152.4 million on 140 Milton-related projects to date — more than any other recent storm. Ian generated nearly $94 million in costs, while Debby added another $54.6 million.
The county’s spending on declared disasters has shot up by 193% since September 2022, right before Hurricane Ian barreled into southwest Florida. Although most of the funding is expected to be reimbursed by federal and state authorities, Sarasota County must first cover the costs itself.
The budget amendment covers both ongoing and planned recovery projects, giving commissioners and the public a clearer picture of how much the county is spending on the efforts, said Kim Radtke, the county’s director of financial management, who made the budget request and spoke before the board on Wednesday, as part of two wide-ranging county budget meetings.
“This is making everything very transparent so that we’ll actually have a budget,” Radtke told commissioners.
If the reimbursement process goes smoothly, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would cover 75% of expenses, while the Florida Department of Emergency Management would cover 12.5%. As of now, Sarasota County has received less than a quarter of the $352 million it has spent.
“We’re waiting on almost $269 million of reimbursement right now,” Radtke told county commissioners.
A recent federal funding freeze affecting FEMA reimbursements contributed to the delay.
A report by the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal-leaning policy institute, found that the recent funding shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, created an operational backlog that may take months to clear. Another report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, found that federal forces are currently stretched thin in their disaster response.
“FEMA and other federal agencies spreading a reduced number of staff across the same or a higher number of disasters nationwide could reduce the effectiveness of federal disaster response for upcoming disasters,” the GAO report found.
The agency’s workforce has been cut by about 14% since President Donald Trump took office.
Typically, the county is reimbursed within two to five years — but sometimes it takes even longer. For example, the county is still waiting on some money from recovery efforts related to Hurricane Hermine, a Category 1 storm that caused flooding and damage in the county after sideswiping the region nearly 10 years ago.
Radtke’s disclosure that some reimbursements remain outstanding nearly a decade later drew a visible scoff from Vice Chair Mark Smith.
A few seats away, Commissioner Tom Knight questioned whether the approval of immediate funds for disaster-related spending should have been part of county policy to begin with. County Administrator Jonathan Lewis clarified that by approving the funding, the commission gives the clerk of court and comptroller authorization to process payments.
“It’s never been a problem because we’ve never had three storms in one (season), or five storms in a relatively short period of time,” Lewis said.
Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis.
The budget amendment also comes amid a year of spending concerns for Sarasota County. The county’s total budget increased by about 65% between the 2022 and 2026 fiscal years. Officials during this summer’s budget meetings are aiming to increase spending in the county’s general fund by only 1.6% from last year.
There is also growing concern from officials that the proposed property tax cuts that Florida voters will decide on in November would lead to drastic cuts in county services across the board.
The county also received $201 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Hurricane Ian and $210 million for the 2024 storms, as part of its Resilient SRQ program to rebuild and improve infrastructure.
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties; and Florida Trident, a nonprofit newsroom of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org and floridatrident.org . Christian Casale is a local government/politics reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at christian@suncoastsearchlight.org
