Longboat Key County?

It’s an interesting idea. But it’s only half of an even better idea.

It’s the Dave Bullock idea (at least this time around, it’s his idea). Longboat Key’s town manager persuaded the Town Commission members to let the town staff study the implications of Longboat Key being a municipality in one county — Manatee or Sarasota — instead of the town’s current status of being split geographically between the two counties.

This is a historical oddity that occurred in 1921, when the Legislature divided Manatee County into two counties. And that was 34 years before Longboat Key residents voted to incorporate — with roughly half of the 11-mile-long island split between the two counties.

That split, unfortunately, has always served as a divide, much like the North versus the South. Even though Longboat Key is one town, that county line has always made the town and its residents feel split.

Bullock’s idea could rid that legacy. But it’s too bad he stopped at the idea of the town belonging to one county. He also should have proferred the implications of the town becoming Florida’s 68th county — beholden neither to Sarasota nor Manatee counties. Now that is an idea that would have huge economic benefits for Longboat Key taxpayers.

To the first idea — a town no longer straddling two counties — the town government would be a clear winner. Either way, belonging to one county would do much to simplify and make more efficient the town’s administrative operations.

Life certainly would be simpler inside Town Hall.

For taxpayers, the effects would be far more economic. It would depend on which county the town aligns — because the property tax rates for each county and each school district are markedly different (see tables below).

The choice would be simple for Longboat Key taxpayers. They likely would choose aligning with Sarasota County. The difference in current millage rates would be 1.6109 mills. That’s real money. 

For a homeowner in the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key whose property is valued at $1 million, that change would amount to an annual savings of $1,610.

Or look at it this way: Currently, that $1 million Manatee-Longboat home pays Manatee County and the Manatee School District $13,858 a year in property taxes. If that home were in Sarasota County, the annual county and school property taxes would total $12,247.

Over 10 years: $138,580 versus $122,470.

No brainer.

But take this idea a half-step further: If Longboat Key became its own county.

Think of the economic windfall for Longboat Key property owners. If you wiped out just the county-imposed property taxes, Longboat Key property owners would eliminate all but 0.5061 and 0.9011 mills of the Manatee and Sarasota counties’ millage rates, respectively. 

Longboat taxpayers still would pay the town’s current tax rate (see box), along with the property taxes for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, West Coast Inland Navigation District and mosquito control. 

You also would have to factor in that the town would have obligations for other services — perhaps public schools, a jail, emergency management. But most of those services likely could be contracted out and purchased from Manatee or Sarasota.

Nonetheless, just imagine if your tax rates were half or three-quarters less than what you’re paying now. Talk about a no brainer.

Ah, but dream on. Neither of these scenarios — being a town in one county or Florida’s 68th county — is plausible. To execute either case, Longboat Key would have to obtain the permission and support of the Manatee and Sarasota county commissions; Manatee and Sarasota legislative delegations; Florida House and Senate and governor.

Not in a million years. 

And for obvious reasons. With Longboat Key property assessed at more than $5 billion, Sarasota County will never relinquish the $18 million Longboaters pay to the county annually; nor will Manatee relinquish the $10.2 million it receives.

But if seceding from one county or becoming a new county is not an option, there are steps the Town Commission still can take to avoid both counties and the school districts taking Longboat Key for granted.

The town doesn’t need to be haughty or nasty about it. But the Town Commission certainly could be more assertive. Sit in the offices of the two counties’ commissioners and remind them — constantly — of how much Longboaters contribute. Then show them what Longboat Key taxpayers have received in return. 

Publish on the town website and in the town’s annual budget specific dollars contributed to the counties and school districts and what tangible returns the town has received. 

Talk about this every year at public budget meetings. And invite county commissions to Town Commission meetings to show Longboaters what the counties are doing for the Key.

Manatee County commissioners ignited this whole discussion last December when the mayors of the barrier islands asked the commission for help with infrastructure for rising tourism traffic. The mayors reminded the county commissioners that while the islands represent 3% of Manatee’s population, they contribute 15% of the county’s property tax revenues.

But the Manatee commissioners were unsympathetic. They told the mayors to raise their property tax rates.

The Manatee commissioners forgot that important rule: Never bite the hand that feeds.