Florida DOGE audit finds Hillsborough overspent nearly $279 million

A state DOGE audit found that Hillsborough County has overspent almost $279 million over the past five years, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said Wednesday.

Auditors from state's Department of Government Efficiency visited the county in August, part of an ongoing review of municipalities to identify wasteful spending.

On Wednesday, Ingoglia noted that since 2019, the county’s general fund increased about 56% to about $860 million, while the population grew by only 123,283.

ALSO READ: Florida House lawmakers poised to take up property tax changes

And he pushed property tax relief, a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis, to remedy the bloat.

"The taxpayers of this county should be outraged at the level of property taxes they are putting into the public coffers, only for it to be wasted by bureaucrats and career politicians," Ingoglia said at a news conference in Brandon.

Ingoglia agreed that some of the spending, such as pay increases for law enforcement and firefighters, were appropriate, but the bump in other areas of the county's general fund were excessive after taking into account inflation and population. That includes the hiring of 645 full-time employees.

"They are expanding local governments, hiring people, giving out raises to a lot of people — some of them well-deserved, some of them not-so-well-deserved," Ingoglia said. "But they are creating bureaucratic programs, and now they are trying to keep them."

A breakdown, according to Ingoglia, showed that for each resident who moved to Hillsborough, the budget increased $6,944 per person and $27,777 for a family of four.

"So my question to local government is: How were you able to do it in 2019? How were you able to do it in 2013? All of this money, all of a sudden, comes in, and now it's an absolute necessary necessity that they actually have to keep it now? I'm calling BS, and I think a lot of the taxpayers need to call BS on this number also," Ingoglia said;.

Ingoglia offered few other examples of fraudulent spending, but promised a "piece by piece" accounting in the future.

County Commissioner Harry Cohen defended Hillsborough's budgeting, noting that 83% of property tax revenue goes to public safety and infrastructure. He told reporters it was tough to respond to the DOGE findings without knowing specifics of waste.

Ingoglia's figures did not line up, saying about two-thirds of the budget increase "is actually bureaucrats who probably do nothing but take taxpayer dollars."

The DOGE effort, in part, should provide backing for DeSantis’ push to eliminate property taxes for homesteads.

The CFO said Hillsborough could "easily" reduce its millage rate by 1.02 mils without impacting services provided to residents. The result would be:

• A taxable home value of $400,000 would save $408 per year.
• A taxable home value of $500,000 would save $510 per year.
• A taxable home value of $600,000 would save $612 per year.

"This is the cut that people in Hillsborough County — the taxpayers — deserve and should be having, not the rhetoric coming out of tax-and-spend career politicians," Ingoglia said.

ALSO READ: Florida's CFO says wasteful spending will be 'undeniable' once DOGE audit findings are released

DeSantis launched the DOGE effort in February, an attempt to identify and eliminate wasteful spending in city and county governments that employed artificial intelligence and in-house inspections.

Ingoglia said Florida’s DOGE audits uncovered over $669.4 million in excessive spending across just three local governments, including about $190 million in Orange County and $200 million in Jacksonville.

"I didn't think any county was going to beat Jacksonville or Orange County, but here we are," Ingoglia said.