Florida’s local governments are falling in line with the unprecedented swoop from Tallahassee of state audit teams examining how tax dollars are being spent.
But while city and county officials comply, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ newly appointed state chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, keeps ratcheting up a confrontational tone.
“Through our travels, we are seeing local governments spend on things that they probably shouldn’t be spending on,” Ingoglia said recently in St. Petersburg. “We’re seeing them give out egregious raises…”
Palm Beach County was the latest to be visited by Ingoglia, who claims to have found “eye-popping” examples of wasteful spending in the county during his two-plus day visit. He declined to provide specifics on what he found and said a report will be released in 60 days.
Democrat: State is run by bullies
Rep. Lindsay Cross, a St. Petersburg Democrat, said that theatrics seem to be central to the state sweep.
“Cities and counties are seeing that our state and country are run by bullies,” said Cross, also an environmental scientist and the former government relations director for Florida Conservation Voters. “For local governments, I think they have to be selective about when they push back and when they cooperate.”
DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, where Ingoglia served in the state Senate until his appointment as CFO last month, have long targeted cities and counties with so-called preemption laws aimed at limiting their authority to tax and regulate.
But the offensive by Ingoglia’s team is going much farther. The state now is going directly at the decision-making of councils and commissions elected by city and county residents.
Data shows that Florida’s previously red-hot housing market has certainly yielded a bounty of property tax collections in recent years.
More than $55 billion in property taxes flowed to counties, cities, school boards and Florida’s special districts last year – more than double what was collected in 2014. It was even 46% higher than the amount taken in statewide just four years ago, state records show.
Suddenly, the state is demanding explanations for how every property tax nickel is spent.
While auditors work, DeSantis behind the effort
For his part, Ingoglia openly acknowledges that the exercise supports DeSantis’ call for a ballot measure next year to sharply cut property taxes. Questions about his auditing efforts put to the CFO’s office were referred to the governor’s office, which failed to acknowledge them.
How far DeSantis’ tax-cutting plan will go is still unclear. But cities and counties warn that a dramatic reduction will certainly hamper local services, beginning with police and fire.
In Florida, property taxes are the biggest source of dollars for 51 of 67 counties and almost half of the state’s 411 cities.
Still, any questionable spending by local governments unearthed by the auditors will likely be held up as confirmation of the DeSantis theory that cities and counties fritter away money and can live with far fewer tax collections.
DeSantis in February created a Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which he said would “work to cut waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability in Florida.” He modeled it on the federal Department of Government Efficiency, briefly headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
DeSantis’ executive order creating a “DOGE Team” calls on it to use “publicly available information to identify and report unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments,” among other things.
The Republican-controlled Legislature followed-up with a measure compelling local governments to cooperate with DOGE auditors.
While Ingoglia is spearheading these DOGE audits, he has tried to draw some separation from Musk’s controversial work at the federal level.
Referring to his work, Ingoglia coined the name: Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO). But some see a heavy-handed parallel between President Trump’s approach to governing and that of DeSantis.
“They’re just trying to create a narrative looking at cities and counties and policies they don’t agree with, that basically don’t fit their idea of what the ‘free state of Florida’ should be,” Cross said. “But they’re missing that cities and counties should be free to govern the way their residents want.”
Searching for waste, looking mostly in ‘blue’ places
Along with St. Petersburg, state auditors’ stops have included Gainesville and Jacksonville, Hillsborough, Manatee, Alachua, Orange and Broward counties. This week, they began work in Palm Beach County.
Manatee and Hillsborough are Republican counties. But most of the other communities where DOGE has been working are Democratic-leaning, even though Palm Beach County is becoming more purple. As of Aug. 21, there were 329,331 registered Democrats in the county compared to 299,216 registered Republicans, a mere 30,115 difference.
Spending tied to diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines or going to support electric vehicles and other climate change-related initiatives are part of the state’s focus.
George Kruse, chair of the Manatee County Commission, said his board invited the DOGE team to come in, and its work was completed in a couple of days. Kruse saw no harm, but he also conceded that he’s unsure about what will result.
“Look, they’re not forcing an audit on a private enterprise: We’re local government,” Kruse said. “I see it as, where else can you get free consulting like this? We’re getting a bunch of people down using the state’s money to assess what we’re doing, for free, presenting to us, presumably, advice about what are best practices for the good of our taxpayers.
“… If they want to send down lifeguards for our pools, that’d be fine, too,” he added.
There have been few signs local governments are looking to keep public documents or records away from inquiring state auditors. Still, Ingoglia has thrown out the accusation that some communities are looking to impose “conditions and bureaucratic red tape” on state auditors, hindering their efforts to find waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
In a letter to Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan of Jacksonville, Ingoglia threatened legal subpoenas, if necessary, to compel her city and others to produce their books. “I am not afraid to use that power,” Ingoglia warned.
Deegan’s office said of the audit team visit: “We welcome any financial evaluation not driven by partisanship or political gamesmanship.”
Katie Belanger, senior consultant with the Local Solutions Support Center, a national non-profit which tracks the interplay between state and local governments, said DOGE plans were proposed through legislation in 11 states, including Florida, this year.
Key for leaders like DeSantis is “consolidating power,” Belanger said, adding, “This is actually aimed at eroding the ability of local governments to function at all.”
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: DeSantis’ new DOGE audits put cities, counties under state scrutiny
Reporting by John Kennedy, Tallahassee Democrat / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
