After years of talk, city officials in Longboat Key appear ready to make a decision to make the town part of one singular county. For the first time this week, the town brought the idea in front of the Sarasota County Commission. Town leaders want the city to be in Sarasota County, rather than split between Manatee and Sarasota. As far as population, the current Sarasota County residents outnumber current Manatee residents nearly 2-to-1. City leaders say making the switch to Sarasota County would save those property owners currently in Manatee roughly $2.6M. Manatee County, though, would lose $22 million a year in tax revenue. That’s an $11 million loss for county government and another $11 million loss for the school district.