Quick hit: Tax collector charges Manatee County schools — that is, taxpayers — $1.5 million
School board members decry attempt by tax office to collect "commission" on special levy.
Manatee County Tax Collector Ken Burton Jr. and the School District of Manatee County — especially Burton — owe it to Manatee County taxpayers to work this out to the sole benefit of taxpayers. Otherwise, it puts at risk future efforts by the school district to continuing a special property tax that has boosted teacher pay and maybe help students achieve their highest standardized test scores ever.
The School District of Manatee County board members have expressed concern over what seems to be a new charge from the Manatee County tax collector.
The district has been charged $1,499,943.50, or 2% of the $74,977,174.64 that the district received from October 2024 through June 2025 from the 1 mill referendum that was approved by voters. The charge is called a "commission" that is allowed by state law. It is the first time that the Manatee County tax collector had issued the charge.
Tax Collector Ken Burton said the school district's voter-approved millage should have been triggering a 2% commission charge for the county since the special tax was approved in 2018 and then extended in 2021.
Rachel Sellers, the deputy superintendent of business services for the school district, said the Board of County Commissioners had previously paid the 2% commission.
“We were unaware that the tax collector was going to start taking a commission,” Sellers said.
School Board Member Chad Choate has been in talks with Burton, who references Florida Statute 192.091, commissions of property appraisers and tax collectors, for why he began to charge the commission.
How best to settle the bill to the benefit of taxpayers?
Burton should waive collection of the commission to ensure that all revenue from the special levy be used for what voters intended.