{"id":2906,"date":"2025-10-14T17:51:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2906\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:51:42","slug":"states-doge-team-set-to-focus-on-st-petersburg-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2906\/","title":{"rendered":"State&#8217;s DOGE team set to focus on St. Petersburg next week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida\u00a0\u2014 Florida\u2019s DOGE team continues to make audits in local governments across the state.<\/p>\n<p>The team plans to continue those efforts by next week.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s DOGE team continues to make audits in local governments across the state<br \/>\n<br \/>DOGE letter sent to St. Petersburg,\u00a0requesting on-site visits next Wednesday and Thursday<br \/>\n<br \/>Auditors asked about the city\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental and homeless initiatives<\/p>\n<p>Members of Gov. Ron DeSantis&#8217; administration recently sent a letter to St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch, requesting on-site visits next Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 13-14).<\/p>\n<p>That comes from a seven-page letter that was sent to the mayor and also asked about the city\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, as well as environmental and homelessness initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Auditors are asking to speak with city staffers, including the chief equity officer and diversity coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>The letter says the city has seen a 75% increase in property taxes over the last six years while spending went up 50%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The audit will be led by newly <a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2025\/07\/16\/desantis-taps-state-sen--blaise-ingoglia-serve-as-florida-s-next-cfo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">appointed Chief Financial Officer Blaise\u00a0Ingolgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic State Rep. Michele Rayner responded to the letter with a statement saying in part, \u201cThis isn\u2019t fiscal oversight, it\u2019s political retaliation. And the cost falls on working families who depend on local services to survive and thrive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The government of St. Pete will join those of the City of Gainesville, as well as Orange, Broward, and Manatee counties, as the targets of a Florida DOGE audit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida\u00a0\u2014 Florida\u2019s DOGE team continues to make audits in local governments across the state. The team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,558,28,2287,115,596,275,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278],"class_list":["post-2906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2906","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=2906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}