DeSantis and Ingoglia’s DOGE crackdown targets Gainsville, Broward

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and newly installed Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia are beginning a crackdown on local government spending by targeting predominantly Democratic Gainesville and Broward County.

They outlined their plans during press conferences in Broward and Gainesville on Tuesday, wielding the state’s new DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) apparatus, modeled on Elon Musk’s efforts in Washington, D.C.

DOGE emerged from a DeSantis executive order and legislation signed by the governor earlier this year. Failure by municipal leaders to cooperate could bring costly fines.

“We are going to start doing onsite DOGE inspections and audits of county and municipal governments,” DeSantis said at his first event of the day in Fort Lauderdale.

“So, beginning on July 31, our teams composed of auditors and other skilled staff that are drawn from various state agencies, they will be using the authority that I mentioned to conduct reviews of the data systems, physical premises, and personnel of counties and cities that have thus far refused to cooperate with us to identify and report on any excessive spending patterns.”

Later Tuesday morning in Gainesville, Ingoglia said local governments are taking in extra revenue and some “are spending it recklessly.”

“And I hate to say it, but you guys are living in a city where one of the worst offenders are, we believe,” he added to the audience at the Florida Department of Transportation office in Gainesville.

A letter sent Monday to Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward accused the city of increasing its property tax burden on homeowners by $30 million over four years, an increase of 80%.

The letter bore signatures from Ingoglia, lead Florida DOGE official Eric Soskin, and Leda Kelly, director in DeSantis’ Office of Policy and Budget.

Simultaneously, the authors noted, Gainesville’s annual budget had expanded by nearly $90 million per year.

Questioning the numbers

Ward told the Phoenix that those numbers are not accurate.

“Our office is trying to figure out exactly where those numbers come from and how they arrived at them,” he said. “But I look forward to our ability to sit down with whoever it is and provide all of the information, but I just don’t see it.”

Gainesville’s general fund has increased from around $130 million four years ago to around $155 million today, Ward said, with most of that increase for public safety.

“And I will stand behind that all day long,” he said, adding that the results have been “huge decreases” in crime, fewer pedestrians and cyclists dying on city streets, and improvements in housing affordability.

“We’re a well-run city and we can certainly give them all of the information they ask for. They will interpret it however they wish, but the people of Gainesville are pretty happy with us.”

Regarding Broward County, DeSantis mentioned his disapproval of some of the County Commission’s spending on items that he said included DEI initiatives, “the Green New Deal,” and nearly $800,000 for a parade float for the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif. “So there’s a lot of things that really deserve scrutiny,” he said.

(The $790,000 buy was financed by Visit Lauderdale, which is funded by the county’s tourist bed tax, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel).

“We have the authority,” DeSantis added in Fort Lauderdale. “This is no longer optional. We no longer have to ask, ‘Mother May I?’ We can just simply say, ‘You must comply under the law.’”

“There’s a new level of accountability in the state of Florida when it comes to fiscal spending,” said Ingoglia, sworn in as the state’s new CFO on Monday.

Although Broward County hasn’t increased its millage rates in years, property taxes have risen with property values. Ingoglia argued local governments should be decreasing their millages rate under those circumstances.

“If you want to keep the same revenue, the millage rate should be going down, not staying the same,” he said.

“So, when your county comes out and says, ‘Well, you know, our millage rate has stayed the same’ — that’s a tax increase in this scenario. It’s not a tax decrease. It’s not even taking in the same amount of revenue. So, millage rates should be going down. Not staying stable, and they should definitely not be going up.”

Penalties

A provision added to the state budget that went into effect on July 1 gives the Executive Office of the Governor the power to compel local governments that receive state funding to provide access to personnel records, physical buildings, and data systems, with fines of up to $1,000 a day for failing to comply with each individual line item noted.

Between 10 to 15 other local governments could receive similar treatment, including Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Manatee, and Hillsborough counties, according to the governor.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2025.