Homeowners subject to private ‘governments’ often pay more assessments than taxes.
By Josh Salman/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: June 20, 2025
Host: For tens of thousands of homeowners in Sarasota and Manatee, their annual tax bill includes more assessments to developers and their homeowners association than taxes to local governments. Suncoast Searchlight sheds light on these hidden costs of living in Florida and the rise of private government. Derek Gilliam and Josh Salman investigated, and Josh brings us this report.
Josh Salman: Real estate developers are turning to these little-known government districts to borrow cheaply for the construction of roads, sewers and clubhouses in their neighborhoods. That, in turn, leaves homebuyers on the hook for their share of loans that take decades to pay off.
But once those bonds are finally paid off, the costs don’t end. As communities age, homeowners are often forced to spend millions more to repair or replace the very infrastructure they just finished financing. That ends up a vicious cycle that inflates the hidden costs of homeownership, a Suncoast Searchlight investigation has found.
In Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties alone, developers have organized more than 85 special districts during the past several decades. They include more established communities like Lakewood Ranch and newer ones like Aqua Lagoon.
Suncoast Searchlight studied property appraisals and tax bills for more than 300 homes across these districts to create a first-of-its-kind dataset comparing the annual fees of these homeowners to the property taxes they pay for city and county services.
The analysis revealed two thirds of properties in local special districts paid more in annual assessments to cover things like road construction, golf course maintenance and landscaping than they paid toward the taxes that fund police, fire departments and public transportation.
Harrison Ranch is a community development district in Parrish. Photo by Josh Salman via Suncoast Searchlight.
Certain homeowners, including some in Harrison Ranch, Forest Creek and LT Ranch, paid almost five times more.
These district fees are stamped onto annual property tax bills.
Homeowners last year paid anywhere from about $500 in Heritage Harbour South in East Manatee County to more than $6,300 in total district fees for certain phases of Lakewood Ranch. That’s often on top of separate neighborhood Homeowner Association dues.
An ongoing Suncoast Searchlight investigation found these developer-led governments have tapped nearly $10 billion in municipal bonds between Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Nearly a third of them have been authorized recently, since 2020.
Brokers, attorneys and economists say residents are often blind to the long-term costs they later can’t escape. Dan Lobeck is a Sarasota HOA attorney who heads the advocacy group Control Growth Now. He told us they don’t always realize it, but these costs are just passed right onto the buyers. He says he’s always been appalled at the concept.
Gregg Gipp. Photo provided by Gregg Gipp via Suncoast Searchlight.
Gregg Gipp owns a home in the Riverwood community, which was built in the 1990s near Manasota Key, just south of the Sarasota county line. Unaware of the hidden costs, over the years, has Gipp watched his neighborhood infrastructure deteriorate. The original roads now need new paving, tree debris that was downed from Hurricane Ian years ago has yet to be cleaned and erosion has carved away the ponds. Worst of all, the 35-year old wastewater system fell into disrepair. During the past five years alone, the district has spent about $1.2 million to upgrade the system.
Greg Gipp told us the wastewater system could have failed, it deteriorated so badly. As he put it, where he comes from, when you put in a sewer system, it’s run by a municipality that knows what it’s doing—not a bunch of retirees.
Reporting for Suncoast Searchlight this is Josh Salman. For the full report I researched together with Derek Gilliam, go to suncoastsearchlight.org/power-profit-sarasota-cdd-special-district-debt.
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