Blaise Ingoglia backs bill with penalties for local government overspending and taxation

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer has bashed nearly a dozen local governments for what he calls overtaxation and overspending in the past several months. Now, he’s shifting his focus to propose a bill that would institute more state controls over municipal finances.

CFO Blaise Ingoglia held a news conference in Tampa where he outlined several elements of legislation that will be taken up by the House and Senate when the Legislative Session begins Jan. 13.

“Almost every local government we have reviewed … has shown zero fiscal restraint,” Ingoglia said. “They just took the tax money and they spent it.”

To bring some of that spending under control, the legislation would establish what he calls the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight as a permanent initiative and agency.

The move comes after Ingoglia began analyzing local government spending in different municipalities in the Summer. He concluded his tour of different counties and cities on Dec. 4 in Palm Beach County, where he blasted that government for “wasteful and excessive” spending.

Ingoglia said that across all 11 local governments he has analyzed, he has exposed “$1.87 billion in excessive spending in just one year alone.”

The legislation he’s proposing would also give “whistleblower” protection for municipal employees, contractors, subcontractors and taxpayers who want to report local government waste and irresponsible spending to the state. Ingoglia said his Office already gets complaints from local government functionaries and they shouldn’t be afraid to come forward.

“A lot of the information that we were getting … we’re getting tipped off by people in the government themselves,” Ingoglia said, adding that contractors may also be hesitant to report government irresponsibility because they might be retaliated against by not being awarded more contracts.

Ingoglia also wants more public records available for budgets, salaries, contracts, spending on nonprofit agencies and more. That could result in a penalty of fines up to $1,000 per day for local governments who do not respond to public records requests and state funding for various projects could be withheld.

The proposed legislative measure would also establish a data bank with all contracts and the system would be easily searchable. “We think everything should be online,” Ingoglia said, adding that taxpayers want to know how much cash local governments have on hand, exactly who they are funding and salary information.

Ingoglia went further and said the proposed legislation could include a recommendation from the CFO to the Governor and Cabinet to remove any elected officials from office if they don’t respond.

“Government grows when (officials) forget it’s not their money, it’s our money,” Ingoglia said. “The taxpayers have had enough.’

The proposed legislation, which has not yet been filed, is being sponsored by Rep. Monique Miller, a Palm Bay Republican. She said she’s all in with Ingoglia’s proposal.

“This is a problem statewide in both urban and rural communities,” Miller said at the news conference with Ingoglia. “This is not punitive. This is accountability.”

Ultimately, Miller said local governments that don’t engage in irresponsible spending and taxation have nothing to fear as they are already serving the taxpayers appropriately.

Ingoglia said he has discussed the measure with Gov. Ron DeSantis. “He loves the legislation.”