SAINT CLOUD, Fla. — Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is continuing his push against what he calls wasteful spending in local governments, putting the spotlight on Osceola County during an event Wednesday at a St. Cloud restaurant.
“Osceola County is drowning in waste just like so many other jurisdictions across the state of Florida,” he said.
Ingoglia said that his department uses a formula that accounts for inflation and population growth over the last six years to determine how much a local government budget should increase by, and then his team compares that to actual increases. Ingoglia’s index says Osceola County’s budget should have increased 58% over the last six years, but it actually jumped 102%.
“The excessive and wasteful spending number for Osceola County just last year alone, one year, $165.4 million,” he said.
Officials with the Osceola County government shared a letter that was sent to the CFO’s office about county spending.
“In fact, over the past year, the county has implemented several initiatives consistent with FAFO’s government efficiency efforts, including reducing duplicative technology expenditures, evaluating contracted versus in-house services, partnering with the clerk of the circuit court & county comptroller on its fraud, waste & abuse hotline, and adopting a zero-based budgeting approach,” the letter said.
Cragin Mosteller is Deputy Executive Director with the Florida Association of Counties.
“The CFO’s math is wrong. I think the way he is calculating it. I would call it more magic than I would call it math,” Mosteller said.
Mosteller said that county budgets are more complex than the CFO’s formula. For example, Mosteller said that a fire truck cost $300,000 seven years ago, but now it costs more than $1 million. She added that the state sends counties many unfunded mandates.
“There are a lot of things that the state would not like to spend money on and so they pass it down to the local taxpayer, and then they say we’re going to cut all your taxes and that’s great, but we still have to pay for those things,” she said.
Mosteller said that Florida counties are putting a premium on transparency.
“Florida has the broadest sunshine laws in the country, and so you have access to all of this information yourself. You don’t have to take his word for it, and you don’t have to take my word for it,” she said.
Ingoglia says he will push for a constitutional amendment requiring governments with budget increases higher than the inflation and population growth index to return the money to taxpayers.