Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Gainesville on Tuesday to kickstart the next phase of Florida’s DOGE efforts, announcing audits of the city of Gainesville and Broward County.  

DeSantis said audits of other cities and counties would shortly follow, and he said the scope will include the breadth of the state, both geographically and politically. The local government audits will also serve as a primer for discussions on eliminating homestead property taxes planned for the 2026 ballot, he said. 

“It’s one thing for the state of Florida to do what we’ve done, and we’re proud of that,” DeSantis said. “But if you’re a Floridian, whether it’s city or county government, taxpayers should be put first. Taxpayers should be respected.” 

DeSantis joined Blaise Ingoglia, Florida’s newly appointed chief financial officer, at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) State Materials Office off NE 39th Avenue, just past the Gainesville Regional Airport.  

Ingoglia will spearhead the auditing efforts thanks to expanded powers granted by the Florida Legislature earlier this year. He said the audits would start at the end of July with a quick turnaround for citizens to see how local governments are spending taxpayer dollars. 

“These are going to be real auditors that are going to be on the ground doing this, and again, we have the authority now to be able to access this information, and we are going to start with some of the jurisdictions,” DeSantis said. 

DeSantis said Florida’s recent efforts to curb bureaucratic waste and increase efficiency came as President Donald Trump announced the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk.  

The governor said Tuesday that Florida launched its own DOGE task force, focusing on state agencies and the university system. Now, he said it’s time to look at local government. Gainesville and Broward County rose to the top, DeSantis said, because of recent tax and budget increases.  

DeSantis said he’s been more involved in Broward County government than he’d care to be, appointing new officials in the past years. Gainesville was on the route back to Tallahassee and had also been suggested for an audit. 

Gainesville has raised taxes in the past five years and seen increases to its budget, and DeSantis said the state wants justifications because the city is also, he said, supporting Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, a “Green New Deal” and other initiatives that taxpayers don’t want.  

“These things need scrutiny,” DeSantis said. “Because I really believe you can do the things at the local level we all agree on—education, first responders, all that—and still be able to provide meaningful property tax relief, but not if the spending is not kept in check on these other items.” 

DeSantis said the audits of cities and counties will set the stage for property tax reform on the 2026 ballot, asking Florida voters if they want to eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties.  

DeSantis noted that the state of Florida doesn’t earn revenue from property taxes, only cities and counties. He said the conversation around property tax reductions typically involves opponents asking how local governments are supposed to fund essential services with the cuts.  

The audits are meant to show that these local governments can reduce spending and absorb any property tax reduction. DeSantis added that homesteaded property taxes are a small portion of the overall property tax income. 

In 2024, Gainesville had a total taxable value of $11 billion to levy taxes on, with just over $860 million in homestead-exempt value. Combined with other exemptions for government and institutions, Gainesville had $8.5 billion in exempt property value that could not be taxed. 

Ingoglia said property values have risen, but tax rates have also increased. He said even if someone owns their home, property taxes mean you’re really renting from the government.  

“Who should benefit from the rise in property values?” Ingoglia asked at Tuesday’s press conference. “You guys should not government. But what we have seen time and time again is that government is benefiting from property taxes.” 

He said a new era of accountability has arrived.  

In response, Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said the city would be responsive to the state and provide all information requested. He also anticipated that other historically Democrat cities would be targeted by the audits.  

Ward said there’s always room for improvement and pointed to another recent state audit of Gainesville. In early 2023, Ward travelled to Tallahassee to appear before the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee on 18 findings from a state-initiated audit.  

State representatives used multiple findings from the audit to justify the creation of the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority, taking control of the municipal utility away from the City Commission.  

That decision led to a cascade of local government changes and dominated Gainesville’s decision-making.  

At its 18-month review, the city of Gainesville reported eight of the findings had been corrected, six findings were partially corrected, and four findings were dismissed.  

However, loss in revenues from Gainesville Regional Utilities has led the City Commission to cut over 130 positions, mostly unfilled, and to raise tax rates in 2023 by 29% over the rollback rate. The city announced that the year-over-year budget shrunk for the first time in 25 years between 2023 and 2024.  

In 2024, the city kept the same millage rate and generated $5.2 million in additional revenue because of increasing property values. This year, the city has a $9 million gap to fill, with most increases coming from contracts with bargaining units. 

Gainesville General Fund Budget 

• 2020: $133.1 million 

• 2021: $137.8 million 

• 2022: $145.3 million 

• 2023: $154.3 million 

• 2024: $156.4 million 

• Proposed 2025: $156.7 million 

At Tuesday’s press conference, DeSantis praised Florida’s fiscal prudence. Florida has lowered its overall budget for the last three years, and he said very few, if any, other states have reduced budgets. For the current budget, Florida earmarked $830 million to pay off debt. 

DeSantis pointed out that Florida’s entire budget is less than half that of New York, despite a larger population, and is basically on par with New York City’s budget, despite more than double the population. 

DeSantis said he believes taxpayers want the local government audits, and he said the findings will roll into 2026 and the property tax discussions. He said if local governments say they’re running well, then they should have no problem showing that through the audits. 

“When you have that type of [tax] increase over a short period of time, without a commensurate population increase, I do think you’re going to end up flagging things that I think taxpayers are going to want to see,” DeSantis said of Gainesville.