Mike Moran ran for Sarasota County tax collector in 2024 on a promise to root out government waste. Two years later, records show his office has increased monthly spending by more than 50% compared to his predecessor, sought double-digit budget hikes in back-to-back years, and paid out more than $500,000 to consultants, lobbyists and a public relations firm — even as other county constitutional officers have been asked to hold budget growth under 2% amid a widening fiscal crunch.

A review of four years of expenditure records by Suncoast Searchlight, conducted with help from the Florida Center for Government Accountability, found travel costs under Moran have nearly doubled, and his office has moved to expand its workforce by more than a third.

The spending stands in sharp contrast to the candidate who attacked his Democratic predecessor for “over taxation” and “ripping off Sarasota County taxpayers” while campaigning on private-sector credentials and two terms on the county commission.

Anne Gannon, who has served as Palm Beach County’s tax collector for nearly two decades, said Moran’s approach runs against the basic obligation of the office.

“He doesn’t quite understand he works for a publicly-funded agency,” Gannon said, questioning why his office needed so many additional employees without a comparable rise in customer transactions. “The people of Sarasota fund his agency.”

Moran defeated longtime Democratic tax collector Barbara Ford-Coates, who held the post since 1984, in the 2024 election. His time in office has already drawn scrutiny: a Florida Auditor General report last month found that a $100,767 “transition services” payment Moran received from the Florida PACE Funding Agency — where he served as executive director while also a county commissioner — violated state law, with no records showing he performed any work for the money. State Attorney Ed Brodsky has said he will refer the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Moran’s office also withheld more than $2 million from a voter-approved school tax, prompting a lawsuit from the school board and a new state law barring the practice. The money has since been returned.

Taxpayer-funded PR push

Records show Moran’s office pays the Lou Hammond Group $96,000 a year for crisis communications, social media management and a contractual mandate to generate 200 new Google reviews a month — an arrangement Moran did not disclose to county commissioners when he cited strong Google ratings as justification for a proposed budget increase in July. Moran said in an email that the contract will not be renewed for the coming fiscal year.

The bigger expenditures came from political and strategic consulting. Records show Moran paid the Ramba Consulting Group — whose lobbyists include Florida GOP chairman Evan Power — at least $100,000 for “consulting services” between December and February, and paid Corcoran Partners $100,000 for similar work. Neither firm responded to requests for comment on what the payments covered.

Moran also spent at least $300,000 with Guidehouse Inc., a firm that paid $7.6 million last year to settle federal fraud allegations tied to a COVID-era cybersecurity contract. Guidehouse’s work for Moran included drafting a four-year strategic plan and conducting a taxpayer-funded “forensic accounting” of his predecessor’s office — an investigation into his former political rival paid for with public money. That audit flagged $461,753 in additional pay and leave for 13 exempt employees during the pandemic, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating.

Ford-Coates said investigators did not contact her but that she would cooperate, and said she could not recall ever hiring an outside consultant or PR firm during her tenure.

Other tax collectors said Moran’s approach is out of step with the office’s norms. Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano said he has never used a consulting firm and questioned the need. Gannon said she has used an outside consultant for strategic planning but never spent more than $50,000 — a fraction of what Moran’s office has spent.

Moran has defended the spending, saying in a statement that increased costs reflect urgent technology needs, including a more than $1 million contract with software vendor Grant Street Group, along with employee training and customer-service initiatives. His office has also spent $38,939 on employee uniforms and $678,000 on a new “special pay” retirement benefit category.

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