Photo: Mike Moran

County Commissioner Mike Moran spent most of the last decade on the Sarasota County Commission. But term limits prevent him from seeking re-election. The Republican still hopes to hold public office the next four years, though, as he challenges incumbent Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates for the constitutional office.

“I have started, owned, and operated a number of companies with hundreds of employees that specialized in high transaction, complicated tax services,” Moran said. “This along with my public service experience is a natural fit for the position of Tax Collector for Sarasota County.”

Before moving to Sarasota County in 2002, Moran owned a payroll, tax and insurance company in Michigan. He characterizes his background as a business owner as critical to his candidacy as he challenges an incumbent who has held her public office since 1972. The particular work gave him a critical background in software development and finance, but also made him understand entrepreneurship and the challenges faced by business owners.

But as he challenges an incumbent, he also said there are plenty of reasons voters should move past Ford-Coates.

“Mrs. Ford-Coates repeatedly says she is efficient in her operations. Some would agree that she is very efficient in ripping off the Taxpayers of Sarasota County,” he said. “For decades, Mrs. Ford-Coates has been over-taxing the residents of Sarasota County. By Florida law, Mrs. Ford-Coates is to only collect fees to cover the ‘actual costs’ to run the operation. Mrs. Ford-Coates is very proud of collecting these fees in excess of Florida law and she repeatedly calls it ‘profit.’  At our most recent budget hearing on June 19, 2024 she is quoted as saying, ‘if we were the private sector we would call it ‘profit.’”

As he challenges the only Democrat holding countywide partisan office in Sarasota, he said the office needs some conservative fiscal discipline.

He provided SRQ records showing she paid one employee more than $448,000 in a year, despite the employee having a salary closer to $165,000. Ford-Coates said a worker shortage led to that employee working 80 hours a week and she said it was appropriate to compensate him. That worker isn’t receiving the pay level anymore, but Moran said that practice only stopped after he made a records request about office payroll.

He also said Ford-Coates uses fee structures that charge 1.5% of total assessments, plus interest. Other counties assess far less — Charlotte County charges a flat $5 fee. Ford-Coates has said she only administers rates set by the county, and if consumers are charged extra, they receive refunds. More important, she said her office has the lowest per capita costs of any tax collector’s office in Florida. But Moran said the incumbent just took steps to increase the fee to 2%, the maximum allowed under Florida law.

Ford-Coates leveled criticism of her own at Moran. He in his private sector work administers a PACE program that has been sued by county tax collectors across Florida. He dismissed the criticism. “PACE does not use one penny of Taxpayer money,” he said, and asserted the program helps Floridians harden homes for hurricanes.

“Mrs. Ford-Coates has been in that office for 49 years,” he said. “She is a lifetime bureaucrat that is proud of getting awards from other lifetime bureaucrats. My wife and I were rewarded by seeing our employees make a meaningful salary, have good insurance, be able to pay their bills, save for college, and have some money left over to have a fun vacation. We don’t need a plaque from Amazon presented by a lifetime bureaucrat to feel accomplished.”

Photo: Mike Moran