SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Despite tough talk from Sarasota County commissioners, this year’s final budget workshop ended with little progress on curbing spending.

Commissioners met Tuesday where they spent four hours in a cramped room hearing constitutional officers explain why their budgets should remain intact, with the commissioners failing to ask any of the agencies to cut more than what they had proposed last month.

That comes after years of ballooning budgets with the county’s proposed spending expected to top $2.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2026.

The two departments with the largest increases — the sheriff’s office and the tax collector — skipped the workshop altogether, leaving commissioners unwilling to press for further cuts. And, rather than reduce his budget, Tax Collector Mike

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