Peter Schorsch
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is officially running for a full term after being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the former lawmaker announced Tuesday.
And the timing likely could not be better.
While some may scoff, his aggressive efforts through Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency, dubbed DOGE to mimic the federal effort led by tech tycoon Elon Musk, have been overwhelmingly successful, in a way that will likely benefit Floridians regardless of their political bent.
The efforts haven’t just been another layer of government bureaucracy through which local leaders must navigate. Instead, they’ve produced real results in terms of tax savings for residents and trimming fat in city and county budgets.
The examples are abundant.
In Plantation, Mayor Nick Sortal — a Republican-turned-Democrat — has proposed the city’s first property tax cut in seven years, with the goal of providing financial relief to residents while also maintaining city services. If approved, his proposed cut from a 5.8 millage rate to 5.7 would establish the lowest property tax rate in the city since 2014.
While not directly related to DOGE, the proposed reduction is a response from Sortal in alignment with both DeSantis’ push to eliminate property taxes and Ingoglia’s argument that by cutting wasteful spending, cities will be more equipped to implement tax cuts.
Jacksonville officials, including a majority of its City Council, are supporting a property tax cut that would be its first since 2022.
Lee County offers perhaps an even more salient example, with Clerk of Courts Kevin Karnes trimming nearly 5% from his requested budget allocation from the county, which would collectively save taxpayers more than $787,000.
Karnes says he is trying to lead by example. He pointed to savings that taxpayers would enjoy if other county government leaders took a page out of his book. If all implemented the same cuts, the county would save nearly $135 million. Applying the cuts to the Sheriff’s Office would save $15 million.
Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, meanwhile, said the DOGE mission is something all local leaders should accept.
“They should see if there’s spots where there’s tax dollars that are being wasted,” he said at a recent Commission meeting. “I think that people should recognize that there are different policy decisions. But if there’s blatant fraud, waste or abuse, that should be pointed out and that should be brought to everyone’s attention.”
Pasco County Commissioners were just as direct in backing DOGE. In early August, the Commission adopted a resolution expressing support, noting in the resolution that “it is in the best interest of the citizens of Pasco County and the State of Florida to work collaboratively … to conduct a thorough and constructive review of local government expenditures in order to identify and eliminate unnecessary or excessive spending.”
While critics will no doubt point to some DOGE targets — such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs — as an overtly partisan effort, it’s worth remembering that the idea at large should defy partisan bickering.
Who among us disagrees that spending should be efficient and lean? Personal budgeting tools, while obviously much more simplified, apply this exact idea by identifying areas of excessive spending and suggesting an overhaul.
As Floridians look to the government — local, state or federal — to help ease affordability issues, the DOGE process is doing just that. Simply put, the less the government spends, the less taxpayers have to fork over.
And the DOGE process is not targeting cuts to services, but rather to programs that may only offer intangible benefits.
Some of those areas are often the subject of intense advocacy among nonprofit partners, faith institutions, philanthropy and more. That means DOGE will continue to have its detractors. But Ingoglia seems to have made a safe bet that when it comes to pocketbook issues, trimming the fat is a winning strategy.
Now he gets to run on it.
