{"id":13418,"date":"2025-10-21T04:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13418\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T04:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:34:13","slug":"florida-cfo-blasts-seminole-county-leaders-over-taxes-heres-their-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13418\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida CFO blasts Seminole County leaders over taxes. Here\u2019s their response"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Earlier this month, Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia blasted Seminole County after it approved its first property tax hike in nearly two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, the county finally released its response.<\/p>\n

Ingoglia had originally announced that the county was spending $48 million more than it should have, when accounting for population growth and inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it seems that local governments are only willing to reduce property taxes when they\u2019re forced to. That\u2019s why property tax reform is so vital,\u201d Ingoglia said. \u201cSeminole County\u2019s refusal to listen to taxpayers is as tone-deaf as it is bewildering.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Seminole County officials released a letter on Monday responding to Ingoglia\u2019s claims, saying that his analysis hadn\u2019t taken into account a few other factors.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Seminole County commissioners OK property tax hike]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile that assumption may work in theory, it overlooks state-imposed mandates; essential service demands; and community-supported programs that drive legitimate cost growth well beyond population and inflation,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

In fact, the letter claims that the county\u2019s total budget has risen by over 50% since 2020. <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety is one of the largest cost drivers and the area most affected by inflationary pressures unique to government operations,\u201d the letter continues. \u201cSheriff\u2019s Office deputy pay has increased 60% since 2020 to remain competitive in a constrained labor market.\u201d<\/p>\n

That breakdown and the full letter can be read below:<\/p>\n

Ingoglia\u2019s criticisms come amid a crackdown by the state on \u201cwasteful spending\u201d by local governments<\/a> in a greater move to reduce property taxes statewide.<\/p>\n

However, such a move would require an amendment to the state\u2019s constitution, which means that at least 60% of Florida voters would have to get on board.<\/p>\n

The goal, according to figures like Ingoglia and Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>, is to \u201carm people with the information\u201d in preparation for a property tax amendment he expects to go on the ballot in 2026.<\/p>\n

A few of the examples of \u201cwasteful spending\u201d in Central Florida recently highlighted by Ingoglia include the following:<\/p>\n

City of Orlando<\/p>\n

Spent $460,000 since 2020 to count trees as part of the city\u2019s \u201ctree inventory\u201d<\/p>\n

Spent $150,000 over three years to help undocumented immigrants evade deportation<\/p>\n

Spent money on a poet laureate program<\/p>\n

Paying nearly $70,000 for hot yoga classes for employees<\/p>\n

Spent money on employee training regarding microaggressions and advanced energy equity<\/p>\n

Orange County<\/p>\n

Spent $223,000 for LGBT youth services that promote gender ideology to youth populations<\/p>\n

Paid $240,000 to a left-wing urban planning firm that carries out its activities from a \u201crace, social and health equity perspective\u201d<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Orange County leaders react to State DOGE Audit]<\/p>\n

Florida politicians like DeSantis and Ingoglia argue that property taxes place an undue burden on homeowners, who have already taken on all of the other burdens that come with homeownership. Worse yet, tax incidence means that the cost of these taxes could even end up falling downstream to lower-income renters who make use of these properties.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, property tax proponents assert that a reduction to the property tax would require an increase to consumption-based taxes, which may have a disproportionate impact on lower-income consumers and those who don\u2019t own property. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, some local leaders have said that even with the massive growth in spending over the past few years, there\u2019s still barely enough funding to cover necessary expenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Seminole County Commission Chairman Jay Zembower told News 6 that officials were caught off guard by Ingoglia\u2019s initial comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody reached out to us until this press conference,\u201d Zembower said. \u201cMy fellow commissioners were taken aback by it, as well as the constitutional officers of Seminole County.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the commission spent more than a year reviewing the budget and even brought in interns from Florida State University to apply artificial intelligence techniques in hopes of identifying unnecessary spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis county commission, not only did they scrub this budget for over a year, our staff did,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe even brought in interns to apply AI techniques to the budget for the purpose of trying to find anything we didn\u2019t find or staff didn\u2019t find.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Zembower\u2019s letter, Ingoglia\u2019s office told News 6 the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that Seminole County is being disingenuous with the time that they\u2019ve given us to review their claims as they are with their excuses for their wasteful and excessive spending.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is we have been in receipt of their letter for a little over two business days. While we are in the process of reviewing the items, it is disingenuous on Seminole County\u2019s part to say that they would not fund core public safety functions such as the sheriff\u2019s office, jail or court support, without a state mandate.<\/p>\n

When we are finished with the review, we will advise Seminole County leaders.”<\/p>\n

Office of Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia<\/p>\n

In the meantime, several state lawmakers have proposed property tax reform amendments for consideration during next year\u2019s Legislative session. You can read more on these new bills here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Earlier this month, Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia blasted Seminole County after it approved its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,2159,99,1014,232,8527],"class_list":{"0":"post-13418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-money","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-seminole-county","14":"tag-tallahassee","15":"tag-taxes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}