Florida’s CFO visited St. Lucie County on Wednesday afternoon as he continues his agency’s efforts to curb local government overspending across the state.
CFO Blaise Ingoglia spoke in Fort Pierce on “government accountability,” outlining his belief that the city had $10.5 million in wasteful spending during the last fiscal year.
“We’ve accounted for everything that a local government should, or would need, in order to deliver services to the taxpayers,” Ingoglia said. “What should scare you is that Fort Pierce blew right past that number.”
Since 2019, the CFO said Fort Pierce’s general fund budget, funded by property taxes, increased by more than $25.4 million (+59.76%). As a contrast, Ingoglia said the city’s population only grew by 4,546 people.
“This is not unlike what’s going on everywhere in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia said. “Local governments are taking extra property tax revenue, partially because people are moving to the state of Florida and filling their coffers, and a lot of it, unfortunately, is not going to fire and police. It’s not going to public safety. It’s going to the bureaucracy underneath them.”
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The CFO said the city has hired 90 new full-time employees in the last six years. Of that figure, only 15 first responders were added by the city, according to Ingoglia.
“Is the government protecting you or is the government protecting their large, bloated budgets?” the Florida CFO said.
During the news conference, Ingoglia also doubled down on the push for property tax reform, calling school boards “some of the most wasteful spenders in government.”
“The reason why property taxes right now are so problematic is that it’s only about 9% of your home. It used to be 33%, and now it’s 9%, and this is why going back in and fixing the property tax system and reforming it for good is what we need to do,” Ingoglia said.
He said that by tightening the city’s general fund budget, Fort Pierce could still fund public services and also reduce property taxes on a $400,000 home by $772 a year, a $500,000 home by $965 and a $600,000 home by $1,158.
“This is real money that belongs in the hands of the taxpayers, not in the hands of government. Local governments are going to try to tell you that they need to keep it. It’s totally untrue,” Ingoglia said Wednesday.
The city of Fort Pierce has not commented on Ingoglia’s claims.
A 99-page report released by the CFO’s office last month claimed DOGE teams “reviewed 11 local governments over the last six months and exposed more than $1.86 billion in excessive wasteful spending.”
Among the government agencies analyzed by Ingoglia’s team, the CFO said that Palm Beach County topped the list with $344 million in overspending. That figure has been met with pushback from county leaders, who are challenging the report’s accuracy and demanding transparency from state officials.
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