Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is planning a news conference Tuesday afternoon to discuss the state’s analysis of spending by Broward County government — a review that was a tentpole of the governor’s justification to create a statewide Department of Governmental Efficiency.
A news release from his office said the conference in Broward would be about “government accountability and wasteful spending.” Just two weeks ago, Ingoglia was giving the DOGE effort credit for the county’s passage of a modest property tax rate cut, a decision to modestly cut the local share of property tax rates.
Some officials had been trying to get a rate cut passed for a few years, but it wasn’t until after the DOGE inspectors arrived and took a look at the books that the County Commission saw fit to make the cut. This was also the first year after the county paid off a 20-year debt obligation, which was cited by rate-cut proponents as the main reason the timing was right for a cut.
Regardless of who deserves credit, state Republican leaders from Gov. Ron DeSantis on down have championed property tax relief as a long-term goal, and the governor has openly questioned Broward’s spending practices as a roadblock to local reform. Broward was the first host of a DOGE team, which visited county government headquarters in late July and early August.
Local elected officials were critical of the state’s effort, with Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller saying at the time that the outcome of the audit was determined before the books were examined.
“They were not sent down here to find out if we have been overspending,” he said at the time. “They’ve already decided that’s happening. They are down here looking for evidence to support what the governor and CFO have already been saying. … In any $8 billion enterprise, they’re going to be able to find something they can point to. But most of the criticism will be a matter of opinion.”
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.
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