Following Florida’s 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 CFO’s 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 on Monday, Igoglia accused Orange County of overtaxing its 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,” Igoglia 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 DOGE audit, aimed at uncovering government misspending. Ingoglia said that while the investigation found $190 million in wasteful spending, he thinks the number is closer to $224 million, but did not provide evidence.
According to Ingoglia’s investigation, Orange County’s general fund budget, which is funded from property taxes, increased $559 million. Ingoglia said that was almost a 54% increase in just the past five years. He also stated that Orange County’s 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 in that time. He also noted that county employees had seen salaries increase by 24.5% in the last 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 earlier today,” 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.”
According to Demings, Orange County employees have seen a salary increase of 16%, or 4% per year, in the last four years. He added that Orange County Fire Rescue was currently 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 Orange 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 tourists in 2024, according to Visit Orlando.
Demings said that Igoglia’s team did not take this population or inflation into account with their investigation, but that 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, if the state really cared about us here at the local level,” 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,” he said.
Last month, Igoglia issued 16 subpoenas to Orange County workers. The move, part of Florida DOGE’s audit of the county, accused county staff of changing the names of files detailing money spent on DEI programs.
After addressing Ingoglia’s accusations, Demings fired back at the CFO and the state, stating that if it really wanted to help people, it could.
“(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.”
