Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia singled out Palm Beach County for overspending by $344.62 million in the last fiscal year, calling it the most egregious excess he has seen in the state.
It’s Ingoglia’s latest stop in a budget bashing tour as he rails against “wasteful and excessive” spending by municipal governments.
Ingoglia said Palm Beach County’s general fund budget in Fiscal Year 2024-25 came in at $878.66 million. Ingoglia has already honed in on 10 other municipal government budgets in his tour that started in the Summer. Some of the governments he’s already railed against include Orange County, Manatee County, Jacksonville and Miami-Dade, among others.
But he said Palm Beach County’s spending may be the most excessive.
“That is the biggest number in the state of Florida that we have seen so far this year,” Ingoglia said of Palm Beach County.
Ingoglia said that across all local governments he has analyzed, he has exposed “$1.87 billion in excessive spending in just one year alone.”
“We might hit $2 billion this year,” he added.
He said he has more local governments to look at as well. “I am going to continue to look out for the taxpayers here in Florida.”
Ingoglia also renewed his call for a ballot initiative to stipulate local government budget spending limitations. Ingoglia wants the Legislature to develop some sort of wording for a possible constitutional amendment that could appear on the November 2026 ballot to be decided on by the voters.
“They (local governments) are not going to fix their budget unless they are acted upon by an outside force,” Ingoglia said.
