Sarasota County leaders this year are hoping to resurrect a public referendum that would create a mental health special taxing district to help address treatment gaps throughout the county.
Commissioners first began discussing a potential special taxing district to support mental health organizations in 2019 after Commissioner Mike Moran brought forth the idea.
They were poised to add the issue to the November 2020 ballot but decided against it when financial uncertainties over COVID-19 arose in April.
“You’d be asking existing programs to take a hit while instituting new programs and I don’t think that’s a great position to be in,” Commissioner Nancy Detert said at the time. “If we delay it a year, I think people would understand.”
2 months ago Share City and county leaders centered affordable housing as a priority in 2020. To what extent will recently established policies bear fruit this year?
A shortage of affordable housing has long been a topic of discussion among local officials, but in 2020, both the county and the city approved a series of actions they hoped would lead to meaningful progress on the issue.
In the city, commissioners adopted a series of land use changes designed to make private construction of affordable housing easier and has $4 million set aside in a fund dedicated to the issue. In the county, commissioners identified land to be repurposed for affordable housing projects and sought to find developers willing to build those units.