Sarasota EDC adapts to county funding cut

With the start of Sarasota County’s fiscal year 2026 budget cycle beginning with its initial workshop this week, it marks the approximate midway point of one its highest profile budget moves for the current fiscal year, the elimination of the countywide business tax.

Those revenues for decades had helped support the operations of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County, leaving the organization under the new leadership of President and CEO Erin Silk in an approximately $200,000 budgetary hole at the beginning of its fiscal year.

The EDC isn’t completely in a lurch. Instead of the business tax, the County Commission is offering an incentive of a 50% match for all private contributions made to the organization by businesses, capped at $500,000. Although the EDC fought for years to keep the business tax revenue — which amounted to a nominal amount each year paid by business owners — it has so far proven to be the elixir needed to achieve greater efficiencies and to generate more largesse from the business community.

“The EDC was already in the process of implementing better efficiencies,” said Silk. “We were looking at different kinds of data tools, AI tools, and evaluating the way it's always been done. Although nobody ever wants to face a budget cut, we were already in process of building our efficiencies.” 

With the fresh eyes of a new leadership team and reconstituted board of directors, the EDC, Silk said, embarked on developing a streamlined strategic plan followed by a rebranding featuring a new logo improved communication processes.

Courtesy image

“The rebrand was an opportunity to update the look. We’d had the same branding for some 15 years,” Silk said. “Following the strategic plan, we worked to identify what we wanted to focus on and portray as an organization, so we immediately went into that rebrand and have not slowed down at all.”

Although it lost the business tax and gained the 50% match incentive, the EDC still receives local government funding on a per capita basis, the equivalent of $1 per person. Out of $464,223 per capita revenue included in its 2025 budget, Sarasota County’s share is $288,097 for the unincorporated population, the City of Sarasota's contribution $57,005. In fiscal year 2024, the EDC received $475,369 in business tax revenues but projects $287,500 in the county’s 50% match incentive, making up 60% of the difference. To reach that county match total, the EDC must raise $575,000 in private contributions, which Silk described mid-fiscal year as a work in progress.

That puts the EDC’s 2025 budget at just less than $1.7 million, $15,000 less than its 2024 budget actuals.

Among the efficiencies the EDC leadership and staff of seven had embarked upon before last year’s decision to eliminate the countywide business tax is the deployment of artificial intelligence tools that help it target growth mode companies which may be looking to relocate or expand.

Rather than blanket marketing at trade shows where potential connections may yield a couple of dozen companies, Silk said, the AI tools can hyper-target hundreds.

“You have to think entrepreneurially. You have to be ready for change. That's the reality of business and we have an incredibly innovative team,” Silk said. "It’s good for any organization to really look hard at the way they've always done something and challenge that notion. We are spending less money while we're going to have a bigger impact on our mission, and that's always a good thing.”

In order to create a capacity for industrial growth, the EDC is also working with Sarasota County to identify and rezone properties as Business Park. These include the Innovation Corridor in North Port with a potential of up to 3 million square feet of business park supporting some 2,000 jobs, of which Benderson Development has developed approximately 700,000 square feet. 

Another targeted area is Lorraine Commerce Park at Palmer Ranch at the interchange of Highway 681 and I-75, adding up to 1.5 million square feet of business park space.

"We are supporting 675,000 square feet of new Business Park over the next three years and projecting another 6 to 8 million square feet over the next decade," Silk said.