video<\/a> shared by News 104.5 WOKV, Deegan specifically addressed critiques of the city\u2019s rising personnel costs, arguing that the spending increases are driven by investments in public safety.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I looked at all these things, it\u2019s like, you can look at it in its entirety,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cThe whole idea of the personnel costs\u2014you look at that and you go, yeah, that\u2019s a big increase. Oh, but it\u2019s also police and fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deegan questioned the consistency of state leaders who criticize the city\u2019s budget while claiming to support first responders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the same folks that say they support police and fire, but they want to take a shot at how we\u2019re spending our money on police and fire, and that\u2019s really it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Ingoglia, who has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, initiative, quickly dismissed Deegan\u2019s characterization of the audit.<\/p>\n
In a direct response, Ingoglia called the mayor\u2019s defense \u201ctotal and complete BS,\u201d maintaining that the audit\u2019s focus is fiscal accountability rather than party lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can it be hyper-partisan when we also called out ruby red Nassau Co and Manatee Co for their egregious spending?\u201d Ingoglia wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s not that you don\u2019t like the audit\u2026 you just don\u2019t like the results.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audit recently identified $199 million in what the state classifies as \u201cwasteful and excessive\u201d spending within Jacksonville\u2019s general fund. While state officials have used the findings to lobby for massive property tax relief, the Deegan administration maintains that the budget is lean and focused on essential services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Mayor Donna Deegan is pushing back against a state-led audit of Jacksonville\u2019s finances, labeling the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-144609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144609","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=144609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}