Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano, a longtime critic of a loan programs that enable people to finance home renovations to make them more energy efficient or storm hardy, canceled a contract with an agency that runs one of the outfits following a report of lavish spending by its leader.
Fasano confirmed the action Friday after the report by the nonprofit investigative newsroom the Center for Public Integrity. It showed the Mike Moran, executive director of the Florida PACE Funding Agency, spent thousands of dollars on out-of-state travel expenses and that the agency paid out over $900,000 to fight legislative proposals for more aggressive oversight.
In his notice to the agency, Fasano said the termination of the agreement with the agency was “for cause.”
“Cause is derived from recent and troubling discoveries obtained through public records requests, that FPFA has utilized public funds at the taxpayers expense for improper and lavish personal use,” Fasano wrote. “Such actions are inappropriate for officials who are (entrusted) with public funds.”
The agency is one of several which administers the Property Assessed Clean Energy programs, better known as PACE. The financing mechanism saddles some homeowners who wouldn’t qualify for traditional loans with debts they can’t afford, a 2020 Tampa Bay Times investigation showed. The assessments are tacked on to annual property tax bills collected by the state’s tax collectors.
Fasano has previously pressed for stricter regulation of the programs, but a state court has blocked Tax Collectors who have tried to crack down on bad actors.
Continuing to do business with such an agency, Fasano said, would put his office “at odds” with the citizens he serves. The letter states that, while his office will continue to collect assessments on existing loans, it will not do so for any loans finalized after the start of the new fiscal year on October 1.
Homeowners have told the Times that contractors that pitched them the loans gave them misleading information about how they are repaid and how much they cost. Payments for the renovations, such as solar panel installation or more energy efficient air conditioning, which are often expensive, can end up as liens on the property.
Fasano has long argued that the state has no oversight over PACE, leaving it to tax collectors to handle the fallout when residents don’t realize that the loan is attached their property.
![Mike Fasano, Pasco County Tax Collector, created his own system to protect consumers in Pasco who participate in PACE. Pictured is Fasano. | [Courtesy of Mike Fasano]](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 885"/%3E "Mike Fasano, Pasco County Tax Collector, created his own system to protect consumers in Pasco who participate in PACE. Pictured is Fasano. | [Courtesy of Mike Fasano]")
Fasano said he was shocked when he saw the Center for Public Integrity’s report in the Florida Trident on spending by Moran, who is also a Sarasota County Commissioner running to be its tax collector. It showed Moran “spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots.”
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 620"/%3E "Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines")
Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter
We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.
You’re all signed up!
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
“Any government official would be thrown out of office for that,” Fasano said. “He was spending like a drunken sailor.”
The story also details that in addition to Moran’s combined salary with Sarasota County and the PACE Funding Agency, which is nearly $300,000, he also received a small percentage as a bonus in his pay for individual jobs done by the agency. They included some that were done by a company in which state records show he is the only principal.
That company, Moran 360 LLC, received more than $55,000 in payments during the first three months of 2023 from the Florida PACE Financing Agency, according to the article.
Fasano said he was especially troubled by information in the report that Moran’s agency had spent $900,000 to lobby against a change in the law this year that would provide more public accountability for the PACE program. The bill, which did pass and was strongly supported by the Florida Tax Collectors Association, prohibits PACE from operating in a jurisdiction without consent and requires operators to follow consumer protection laws.
Sarasota County’s public relations would not transfer a call from the Times to Moran on Friday because it said the call did not concern his position with the county. A message left in a general mailbox for Moran at the Florida PACE Funding Agency was not immediately returned.
Moran defended his spending to the Center for Public Integrity, saying that he did not believe the PACE funds were public funds because they came from private individuals, an assertion Fasano and other tax collectors charged with collecting the payments dispute.