Following Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia's accusation of overtaxing Orange County residents, Mayor Jerry Demings fired back, calling the CFO's math "fuzzy."
On Monday evening, Demings defended the county's tax and spending practices, sending a message to residents and the CFO that those accusations are wrong and the scrutiny would be better suited by looking at the state's own spending.
"What I'm saying here is that the CFO ought to get his own house in order first before he starts looking in someone else's house," Demings said.
Earlier Monday, Igoglia accused Orange County of overtaxing residents to a sum of $190 million.
"This money belongs in the hands of taxpayers, not the bureaucrats who have proven to be fiscally irresponsible," Ingoglia said. "We are deeming almost $200 million of the Orange County budget as excessive and wasteful. That is an amazing amount of money."
The county has been the target of Florida's Department of Government Efficiency audit, aimed at uncovering misspending. Ingoglia said that while the DOGE investigation found $190 million in wasteful spending, he thinks the number is closer to $224 million, but did not provide evidence.
ALSO READ: Florida CFO says Orange County not cooperating with DOGE efforts, subpoenas DEI grant records
According to the DOGE investigation, Orange County's general fund budget, which comes from from property taxes, increased $559 million. Ingoglia said that was almost a 54% increase in just the past five years. He also stated the county population had only grown by 79,047 people in the last four to five years.
Additionally, Igoglia mentioned that the county had only hired 661 employees over that time and that salaries increased by 24.5% over the past four years.
"Our first responders are fighting for wage increases; they are not getting these wages, but the bureaucrats are getting these raises," Ingoglia said.
Demings took issue with the accusations.
"[Ingoglia] used some fuzzy math in his discussions," Demings said. "What I want our residents to know is that your local government has been responsive to the needs of this community. I want them to know that our taxes remain relatively low, and we pay our employees what they deserve."
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According to Demings, county employees have seen a salary increase of 16%, or 4% per year, over the past four years. He added that Orange County Fire Rescue was in the negotiating process for a wage increase of 25%.
Demings addressed the general fund budget and said it is actually $474 million, not $559 million.
The mayor also took issue with the CFO's estimated population for the county, stating that "our population has grown in the past five years by 125,488, using the Bureau of Economic and Business Research of the Bieber report published by the state of Florida."
However, a look at the Bieber report shows county has grown by 81,660 people between 2020 and 2024, which is closer to the CFO's estimate.
In regards to the population, Demings pointed out that the CFO neglected to consider Orange County's position as a tourist destination, receiving 75.3 million visitors in 2024, according to Visit Orlando.
Demings said that Igoglia's team did not take population or inflation into account, but even if the number was accurate, $200 million is 2.4% of Orange County's $8.2 billion budget.
"I can tell you today, even with $8.2 billion, it simply is not enough to solve the myriad of issues that we have as a local government," he said. "If the state really cared about us here at the local level, they would sit down and talk to us like decent folk would do, rather than issue subpoenas."
ALSO READ: Ingoglia says Florida's DOGE is 'not going away'
Last month, Igoglia issued 16 subpoenas to county workers. The move, part of the DOGE audit, accused county staff of changing the names of files detailing money spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
After addressing Ingoglia's accusations, Demings the CFO and state could help citizens if it really wanted.
"[Residents] are sick and tired of those bureaucrats in Tallahassee dividing us, dividing us along political lines," he said. "The rhetoric that you heard today is simply political."
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