Broward County, Jacksonville fire back on Ingoglia

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(The Center Square) – The administrator of Broward County late Tuesday questioned the accusations of excessive spending by Florida's chief financial officer.

In a news conference, state CFO Blaise Ingoglia said Broward County’s general fund budget over the last five years has increased $190 million more than could be justified by population growth and inflation.

Those numbers were challenged by Administrator Monica Cepero.

“Thus far, we have been unable to verify the sources of data used to arrive at these values,” Cepero said in a statement. “For example, neither the population growth nor the inflationary index match commonly used sources, nor can we confirm the correct adopted general fund budget amounts were used in his calculations. “

Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency mirrors a federal effort by the same name and has not yet issued a report on Broward, Cepero said. A DOGE team visited Broward in July, she said.

“No report from that exercise has yet been released,” Cepero said.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Jacksonville, a government that was also singled out by Ingoglia for overspending, on Wednesday highlighted that city’s efforts to operate more efficiently.

“We are turning around permits in half the time we used to,” Mayor Donna Deegan said in a statement. “We held the number of nonpublic safety city employees flat despite the fastest growing population in Florida. We have a top-tier AA+ distinction from the leading ratings agency.”

She touted the Proto Box which uses three dimensional “hologram” technology to present the mayor greeting travelers at the airport and images highlighting the city’s NFL team, the Jaguars.

“The city of Jacksonville has spent more than 1,000 staff hours cooperating with Florida DOGE throughout this year,” the mayor said. “The opportunity cost for this time is well above the $75,000 cost of the Proto Box itself, which was funded by the Technology Solutions Division and represents a mere 0.0000375% of the city budget.”