{"id":18595,"date":"2025-10-24T08:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18595\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T08:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T08:55:07","slug":"miami-candidates-react-to-florida-doge-analysis-of-city-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18595\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami candidates react to Florida DOGE analysis of city spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

After CFO Blaise Ingoglia reported that Miami is $94 million over budget<\/a> this year, some running for elected City Hall jobs say changes need to be made and are arguing they\u2019re the ones voters should trust to make them.<\/p>\n

That includes multipole candidates for Mayor: Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former City Manager Emilio Gonz\u00e1lez and former Commissioner Ken Russell, the former two of whom agreed with the findings of Florida DOGE\u2019s audit of the \u201cMagic City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins, who carries an endorsement<\/a> from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, said Miami needs \u201can outsider\u201d to fix the problem, not a \u201cCity Hall insider\u201d who will perpetuate the problem.<\/p>\n

That last bit could be a backhanded reference to Gonz\u00e1lez, who helped steer Miami\u2019s spending for a few years through early 2020, before Ingoglia said city spending ballooned by 44% over a half-decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said at last week\u2019s debate and since the day I announced my campaign, the city of Miami\u2019s chaos and corruption has left taxpayers paying for more while getting less in services. This isn\u2019t a this-year problem either, it goes back years,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters can deliver change and reform by electing an outsider with the experience and courage to go deeper into the finances, complete comprehensive audits and bring transparency once and for all to city hall. As Mayor, I not only promise to do just that, I will get it done. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez, who is running with Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 support<\/a>, applauded Ingoglia for \u201cexposing the excess (and standing) up for taxpayers across Florida.\u201d He noted that the sum Ingoglia said Miami overspends is \u201calmost identical to what Miami collects each year in property taxes from homesteaded homeowners \u2014 roughly 7% of the city\u2019s entire budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tells us everything we need to know: The money is there,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWhat is missing is responsible leadership. By cutting waste and demanding accountability, we can eliminate property taxes for homesteaded homeowners \u2014 giving real relief to the people who call Miami home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliminating ad valorem taxes on homesteaded properties, with a carve-out for continued school funding, is among eight proposals<\/a> House leadership filed last week.\u00a0DeSantis criticized the bill package on Wednesday as confusing and \u201cnot a serious attempt<\/a> to get it done for the people.\u201d\u00a0Speaker Daniel Perez, who represents parts of Miami-Dade County in the House, retorted<\/a> Thursday that the proposals provide specificity to an issue on which the Governor has remained vague.<\/p>\n

Russell, who left the City Commission to run for Congress, called Ingoglia\u2019s Thursday presser \u201cperformative\u201d and a \u201ccampaign event for Emilio Gonz\u00e1lez.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMiami residents will vote for a Mayor who balances our budget and fights for home rule. Not hand it to the Governor,\u201d he said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russell has long described City Hall operations as corrupt. He vowed to tackle the issue in March, when he launched his mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine Miami meeting its true potential with good policy and governance,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Candidate Rolando Escanola, one of eight candidates<\/a> running for the District 3 seat on the Miami Commission, included responsible budgeting as a platform pillar<\/a>. In a statement, he said Ingoglia\u2019s news conference \u201cconfirms why it\u2019s time to end the corruption and control by the same City Hall insiders and political dynasties controlling Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a knock on the one person leading Escalona in District 3 fundraising: former City Commissioner Frank Carollo, who is running to succeed his brother Joe on the dais \u2014 a move, if successful, that could result in the Carollo family controlling the seat for two decades straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s costing us too much, and District 3 voters are fed up with the abuse of power coming from their elected leaders,\u201d Escalona said. \u201cI am running to bring fresh leadership and a generation of change to City Hall. It will start with throwing out the existing budget and starting from zero. We can no longer risk the same entrenched insiders and failed political candidates governing \u2014 the time for change is NOW.\u201d
Miami\u2019s General Election is Nov. 4. Early voting<\/a> begins Saturday.<\/p>\n

If no candidate tops 50% in a race, the top two advance to a Dec. 9 runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After CFO Blaise Ingoglia reported that Miami is $94 million over budget this year, some running for elected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2855,6059,3094,3674,4077,3935,123,125,124,8191,7074,15335,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-18595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-blaise-ingoglia","9":"tag-daniel-perez","10":"tag-doge","11":"tag-eileen-higgins","12":"tag-emilio-gonzalez","13":"tag-florida-doge","14":"tag-miami","15":"tag-miami-headlines","16":"tag-miami-news","17":"tag-property-tax","18":"tag-property-taxes","19":"tag-rolando-escalona","20":"tag-ron-desantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18595","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=18595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}