Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia was in Seminole County Tuesday to reveal the results of a county government audit that found millions in overspending.
The Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, or FAFO, audit claims that the county government has overspent by about $48 million dollars.
Ingoglia said that means for every person who moved to Seminole County, the budget increased by $5,402 dollars. For every family of four who moved there, the budget increased by $21,608 dollars.
“So by our calculations, based upon that $48 million number, Seminole County government could have easily cut the millage rate by .81 mills and still delivered property tax relief and still paid for essential services,” Ingoglia posited.
Instead, he said the county increased the utilities tax by 10%, gas taxes by 5 cents a gallon, and approved the first property tax rate increase in 16 years.
“Here in Seminole County, the County Commission didn't cut your taxes. They actually raised your taxes. They increased the millage rate from 4.8751 to 5.3751 in a time when people are hurting and want property tax reform, they went out and voted to raise your taxes,” Ingoglia said.
A mill is a property tax of one dollar per $1,000 of taxable value.
So far, Ingoglia said his team have audited six county governments.
Generally those audits are part efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In this case, Ingoglia said the Seminole County audit was a separate FAFO audit by his office.
In Central Florida, the overall audits include Orange and Seminole counties. DOGE also looked into the expenses of several cities, like Orlando.
Local governments pushback
In a statement, Seminole County said the higher budget is due to a growing population and rising inflation.
“The Board’s decision to approve a millage increase for FY 2025–26 was not made lightly. It was a necessary step to preserve essential public safety services that residents rely on every day, including the Sheriff’s Office, Fire Rescue, Emergency Management, Animal Services, and Emergency-911,” read the statement.
The county says it “remains committed to fiscal discipline, transparency, and delivering exceptional value to our taxpayers.”
Experts say one of the main incentives of Florida FAFO and DOGE isn’t just to expose government overspending at the local level, but also to illustrate the need for and feasibility of property tax reform.
The logic goes that, if county governments are overtaxing residents, they could survive without property taxes.
In a survey conducted by The James Madison Institute, a conservative Florida think tank, over 60% of Floridians support some kind of property tax relief and say that affordable housing is a major concern for them.
Ingoglia’s said he supports property tax reform and has plans to continue audits of local governments, including school districts.
“The school budgets are wasting money also. And I will say this blanketly, every level of government, whether it is state, federal, local, county commissions, local city councils, school boards, enterprise funds, every single level of government is wasting money and spending taxpayer dollars and fees obnoxiously,” Ingoglia said.
Governments are pushing back against this sentiment, saying that the services local governments provide residents using their tax dollars are crucial, and that they’re not overspending.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, for example, called Ingoglia’s claims against his government, "nonsensical,” and said, “property tax goes to fund the services that are provided to you at your home, whether it is police, fire response, cleaning streets, sweeping streets, garbage pickup, those types of things.”
But Ingoglia said he wants to write these kinds of audits permanently into the office of the Chief Financial Officer of Florida.
“So we are trying to institutionalize identifying waste, fraud and abuse at the local government level and then letting the taxpayers know what it's being spent on, because we believe that is what the taxpayers deserve,” Ingoglia said.
