CFO Labels $562M in Local Spending 'Wasteful,' Offers No Details | The Locally Times
Florida's CFO designated $562M in spending by Jacksonville, Hillsborough, and Alachua counties as 'wasteful,' but public records from his office provide no specific line items or methodology to support the claim.
The declarations, targeting the budgets of the City of Jacksonville, Hillsborough County, and Alachua County, were made over an eight-day period in late 2025, escalating a statewide review of municipal finances. On that day, the office announced it had identified $200 million in the City of Jacksonville’s budget as wasteful. On September 24, 2025, a subsequent release declared over $278 million in Hillsborough County’s budget fell under the same category. The series of announcements concluded on September 26, 2025, with a final release targeting over $84 million in Alachua County’s budget. These three actions, totaling $562 million in challenged expenditures, represent a significant state-level intervention into the fiscal affairs of locally elected governments. The announcements position the CFO’s office as a direct fiscal watchdog over cities and counties, a role it has pursued through a statewide initiative. ## The 'DOGE Review' Initiative The public criticism of local budgets appears to be the culmination of a broader campaign by the CFO’s office. A press release from August 4, 2025, shows CFO Ingoglia demanded local governments comply with a “DOGE Review” and to do so without creating procedural delays. The documents do not define the acronyms DOGE or FAFO. These meetings, which occurred throughout August 2025, took place in multiple jurisdictions, including Jacksonville, Orange County, Manatee County, Hillsborough County, Palm Beach County, and the city of St. Petersburg. The timeline of these events suggests a coordinated, statewide effort to scrutinize local government spending. The meetings in August preceded the September announcements that labeled specific, large-dollar amounts in the budgets of Jacksonville and Hillsborough County as wasteful. This pattern indicates the public announcements are an outcome of the ongoing DOGE Review process, though the specific findings and mechanics of that process have not been made public. ## Accusations Lack Specifics or Methodology While the CFO’s office has been forthright in announcing the total dollar amounts it deems wasteful, a review of its press releases reveals no supporting documentation, audit reports, or a breakdown of the expenditures in question. The records do not specify which programs, departments, or capital projects within the City of Jacksonville, Hillsborough County, and Alachua County account for the hundreds of millions of dollars criticized by the CFO. Furthermore, the documents provide no criteria or methodology used by the CFO’s office or the DOGE reviewers to arrive at their conclusions. The public record does not clarify how an expenditure is defined as “excessive” or “wasteful,” or what analytical process was used to calculate the specific figures of $200 million, $278 million, and $84 million. This absence of information makes it impossible to independently assess the validity of the CFO’s claims. The public declarations of waste exert significant pressure on local officials, raising questions about the autonomy of county commissions and city councils to allocate resources based on the needs of their residents. With over half a billion dollars of their local budgets branded as wasteful by a top state official, citizens are left with serious allegations but no facts to evaluate them. The available records from the CFO’s office also do not contain any formal replies or rebuttals from officials in the targeted jurisdictions. Until the CFO’s office releases detailed reports from its DOGE Reviews, residents and local leaders in Jacksonville, Hillsborough County, and Alachua County are left to wonder which parts of their government are being targeted and why.