DeSantis’ DOGE finds ‘wasteful’ spending but no fraud in local spending review

Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency — a DeSantis administration task force created to root out waste, fraud and abuse in local government — released a sweeping report on Wednesday that identified no cases of fraud but accused local governments of squandering millions of dollars on diversity and climate initiatives.

The report, submitted more than two weeks after its legislatively mandated deadline, is the product of months of inspections and audits targeting 13 of Florida’s largest cities and counties. While DOGE, as the task force is known, was explicitly tasked by Republican lawmakers with uncovering “waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement,” the 98-page report does not allege any sort of criminal misconduct.

Instead, it focuses on what it characterizes as excessive or poorly prioritized spending. It cites six-figure salaries and big pay raises for city and county employees. Much of the report is dedicated to calling out local governments’ diversity, equity and inclusion activities — one of the task force’s other charges.

But it also cites as “excessive” local services and initiatives such as:

• Subsidies for public radio stations, which the state said had a “partisan agenda”

• “Barely used bicycle lanes” and “costly-to-operate and low-ridership transit systems”

• Grants to nonprofits for “therapeutic art,” “food justice” and $150,000 in Orlando for legal aid for people including “illegal immigrants”

• “Unneeded” amenities “that compete with small businesses in the private sector: from public yoga sessions to publicly-operated bars and grills”

The city of Miami was singled out in the report for paying its new city manager $475,000, up from $275,000 in 2019. It said St. Petersburg has four “DEI executives” making between $87,000 and $219,000.

Hillsborough County was dinged for spending $500,000 in film subsidies for “forgettable projects” and $204,000 on “the ‘Ferrari’ of grand pianos” for its performing arts center.

The Florida Association of Counties, which represents county governments, said it had “serious concerns about the accuracy of the data and the conclusions drawn from it.”

“It relies on selective snapshots and one-size-fits-all formulas that do not reflect the full and correct range of services local governments are required to deliver,” spokesperson Cragin Mosteller said in a statement.

She added that county budgets “are set in public, audited regularly, and shaped by the voters who elect local leaders.”

Florida DOGE’s goal, the report indicates, is to justify a proposal to reduce property taxes, something DeSantis has been talking about for nearly a year. DeSantis has yet to produce any formal proposal, which would require approval of 60% of voters this fall.

“The absence of budgetary discipline by local governments is clear,” the report states. “And with an ever-increasing flow of property tax dollars into their coffers, they see no need to change course.”

The report repeatedly praises DeSantis’ leadership and includes politically charged language, including spending two pages denouncing climate change “hysteria” and calling out St. Petersburg for spending $100,000 on Pride events “that groom minors.”

But at the center of DOGE’s analysis is a claim that local government spending has spiked far more than Florida’s population or inflation. That’s largely because of soaring home values from people moving to Florida, which the report attributes to “the attractive business environment under Governor DeSantis’ leadership.”

The report states the taxable value of Florida property doubled since 2017, but local governments have only slightly reduced property tax rates during that period. It provides no detailed breakdowns on what each local government spent that money on.

However, the DOGE task force cites individual examples of questionable spending, such as Fort Lauderdale setting aside 38% of its general fund revenue for reserves and governments awarding steep increases in compensation for employees.

Several local governments were cited for spending more on the homeless in recent years, ignoring the fact that DeSantis signed a state law forbidding cities and counties from allowing people to sleep or camp in public spaces.

“DOGE observed that uncontrolled spending has proliferated in virtually every department and category,” the report said of local governments.

The report doesn’t include any examination of spending by state agencies DeSantis oversees, which lawmakers have tried to rein in in recent years.

It’s not known how much the DOGE initiative, which includes staffers from six state agencies and the governor’s office, has cost. DeSantis hired a former Trump administration inspector general to lead the DOGE task force with a salary of $197,000. The task force’s authority is set to expire on July 1.

The task force also issued several recommendations, including capping local governments’ reserves, banning DEI-related initiatives and titles and consolidating local governments.

Spokespeople for St. Petersburg and Hillsborough County said they were reviewing the report and could not yet comment on the specific claims.

Casey Cook, chief of legislative affairs for the Florida League of Cities, said cities are “the most responsive government in the state.” The league has warned about the effects of reducing property taxes.

“Any serious conversation about reform has to start with how communities actually function, not just how numbers look on a spreadsheet,” he said in a statement.