{"id":89902,"date":"2025-12-19T23:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/89902\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T23:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:08:11","slug":"cfo-ingoglia-unveils-legislation-to-make-local-officials-more-accountable-tallahassee-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/89902\/","title":{"rendered":"CFO Ingoglia Unveils Legislation to Make Local Officials More Accountable \u2013 Tallahassee Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Mitch Perry, Florida Pheonix<\/p>\n

Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Blaise Ingoglia previewed legislation Wednesday meant to increase spending accountability and transparency for local government officials, with penalties for noncompliance including fines and removal from office.<\/p>\n

Ingoglia has been crisscrossing the state for months with his FAFO (Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight) team, auditing spending by some of the state\u2019s largest counties and municipalities. To date they have reviewed spending by 11 local governments and say that they have found more than $1.86 billion in alleged wasteful and excessive spending.<\/p>\n

Ingoglia has been clear that part of the effort is to show taxpayers that extensive wasteful spending is taking place. His assertion of such excesses, he believes, should quell arguments by local government officials that a proposed reduction in property taxes for homestead properties will harm essential local services.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants to put a measure on the statewide ballot next November that would eliminate of substantially reduce property taxes on homestead properties but has yet to release his own proposal(s). He has, however, ridiculed the proposals on the issue already moving their way through the Florida House as \u201cmilquetoast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingoglia introduced his proposal during a press conference in Tampa that featured state Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, who said she will sponsor them in the Florida House during the 2026 session.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last five years, we have seen property taxes increase by nearly 50%, and this at a time when Florida\u2019s families are being asked to tighten their belts,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be direct, tax dollars have become a drug for local governments. And, like any addiction, as long as the supply is unlimited, the behavior will not change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The provisions in the legislation<\/p>\n

The proposals discussed on Wednesday that will be sponsored by Miller in the House and Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, would include:<\/p>\n

-Codifying FAFO into statute to increase accountability and transparency in local government and make this effort a long-term permanent initiative. \u201cProtecting taxpayers should not have an expiration date, and neither should FAFO,\u201d Ingoglia declared.<\/p>\n

-Grant government employees, contractors, subcontractors, and taxpayers whistleblower protections when reporting waste, fraud, and abuse of local tax dollars.<\/p>\n

-Allow the Department of Financial Services to pursue financial penalties from local governments if they do not respond to inquiries in a \u201ctimely manner,\u201d including the withholding of state funds until they comply. That office would have the power to issue subpoenas (as Ingoglia\u2019s office did this summer with officials in Orange County).<\/p>\n

-Require local governments to upload all of their contracts into a centralized state financial system.<\/p>\n

-Require local governments to submit annual financial efficiency reports to include information such as cash on hand and how much goes to investment accounts and nonprofit organizations, and to list salaries of every local government employee.<\/p>\n

-Codify that the Florida CFO can recommend to the governor and state Cabinet removal of any elected official found to have committed financial abuse, malfeasance, or misfeasance.<\/p>\n

Miller said that whenever the conversation about cutting back on excessive government spending takes place, she has been \u201cimmediately bombarded by naysayers and their supporters with arguments as to why it is impossible. It\u2019s just astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingoglia spent considerable time during the news conference ridiculing local government officials \u201cand their leftist big-budget apologists\u201d who have questioned the methodology of his team\u2019s audits.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fictitious\u2019 claims?<\/p>\n

Last week in Palm Beach County, Ingoglia claimed his team of auditors identified $344 million in \u201cexcessive, wasteful spending\u201d in the most recent fiscal year \u2014 the highest amount across the 11 local governments his agency has reviewed this year.<\/p>\n

That received strong pushback from Palm Beach County Administrator Joe Abruzzo, who called the claims \u201cfictitious,\u201d and sent Ingoglia a public records request asking for detailed information about how the calculations were made, according to Stet News.<\/p>\n

Local government officials have repeatedly questioned what the CFO is identifying as being \u201cwasteful\u201d and \u201cexcessive\u201d in their spending practices. Ingoglia has promised those governments that detailed audits identifying that spending are coming, but they have yet to be released.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill there be specific instances outlining line items in the budget that they are spending? Yes, but that is why this information and this piece of legislation is vital, because it allows us to get more information quicker than we would have before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among the local governments Ingolia\u2019s team has audited to date, Tampa, the state\u2019s third largest municipality, hasn\u2019t been one of them. But Ingoglia said if he is elected next year and then re-elected in 2030, he\u2019ll eventually get to every local government that draws taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it is a city, a county, a taxing jurisdiction, a school board, a board that has its own millage rate, its own taxing authority, that will not escape my grasp over the next nine years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be looking at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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