Blaise Ingoglia bashes Alachua County tax increases as part of growing calls for spending control

Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia made the latest stop in his continuing crusade against local government spending with an appearance in Alachua County.

“We are on the verge of a property tax revolt here in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia said, as he unloaded on the county government that is home to Gainesville and the University of Florida.

Ingoglia said the Alachua County government has increased their annual budget by $140.02 million just since Fiscal Year 2019, a 77% jump in a five-year span. He said that amounts to $84.83 million in excessive spending.

It’s a similar message he has delivered in the past two weeks as he has been holding press conferences across the state while bashing local government budgets in Orange County, Hillsborough County and the city of Jacksonville. It’s part of Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) approach to reining in municipal government spending.

While Alachua County may be smaller than those other metropolitan areas, Ingoglia said the “excessive waste” there is no more excusable. The county’s population has only increased by 15,605 people in the past half-decade, while 163 new county employees have been added.

“If this was a local business running this, they’d be bankrupt very, very quickly,” Ingoglia said.

While Ingoglia railed against what he calls “wasteful spending,” he acknowledged there’s not much that state government can do to shift government budgets on the local level. But he once again called for a ballot initiative to appear in the November 2026 election. Ingoglia will also be running next year to seek a full term as CFO.

“We cannot force local governments to cut budgets. … But the biggest thing that we can do is put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot,” Ingoglia said.

In visiting and openly criticizing the four local municipalities in the past two weeks, Ingoglia now says that he has uncovered $745.28 million in excessive taxes.

“When governments say they cannot cut, they’re lying. They can cut. They just don’t want to,” Ingoglia said. “I am going to be an unafraid taxpayer advocate for you guys.”

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