Gov. DeSantis rolls out DOGE Task Force, eyes workforce cuts and AI-aided audits

Gov. Ron DeSantis is promoting a state version of the Elon Musk-led spending slash in Washington that will reach into all areas of state administration and local governments.

“We were DOGE before DOGE was cool,” DeSantis said in Tampa. He praised the Department of Governmental Efficiency in Washington while noting that Florida has already been on a similar track in terms of reining in government to make sure state administration is as “lean and efficient as possible.”

But there’s still a long way to go, DeSantis noted.

To that end, he’s creating a state “DOGE Task Force” that will sunset in a year to look at more efficiencies. Though Florida has the “lowest number of state government workers per capita of any state in these United States,” DeSantis wants that number to get lower.

He wants to cut 740 net positions in the next budget, despite adding law enforcement and corrections staff. DeSantis is also proposing the sunset of 70 Boards and Commissions with 900 associated positions “to get them off the books,” pending legislative ratification.

“There’s hundreds of these things. A lot of people have never heard of them, but they’re there,” DeSantis said.

He noted that many of them haven’t met in years. And he wants to “utilize” artificial intelligence for contract review.

Additionally, DeSantis wants to ensure colleges and universities are “good stewards” of tax dollars, asking for an independent audit of their finances in what he calls the “DOGE-ing” of the State University System.

Course offerings will also be “pruned,” with an eye to getting “some of the ideological stuff out.” And administrative “excess or bloat of personnel” will also be targeted.

Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. is on board with this, promising an audit to ensure administrators are “laser-focused” on doing things the right way.

State agencies will also be audited with artificial intelligence, with “people with strong IT” skills going in to take a second look and “put the kibosh on” contracts that backdoor diversity, equity and inclusion and the like.

Local budgets will also be eyed, given they’ve “ballooned” in recent years, and DeSantis isn’t sure “taxpayers have been at the table” amid bigger spending and tax increases.

The task force will “DOGE at the local level,” taking a look at “publicly available” budget records to make sense of local spending. DeSantis hopes to get legislative authorization to compel local governments to comply with his DOGE task force over the next few years.

“DOGE teams can show up at the county and they can audit, and they can use AI,” DeSantis said. “I think that would be really healthy.”

DeSantis also said he wants to return “close to a billion dollars” in federal funds given to the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Transportation that were unused from Joe Biden administration initiatives tied to “noxious concepts and policies” with an eye towards helping the federal DOGE initiatives and defraying debt.

The Governor’s comments here represent an evolution of thought over the years. When U.S. Sen. Rick Scott pressed states to return unused federal monies years ago, DeSantis said the feds would just send the money to “blue states.”

State Board of Administration Director Chris Spencer supplemented DeSantis’ comments, hailing the drive toward “efficiencies,” and spotlighting Florida’s strong credit rating and “accelerated debt repayment program” as “Washington’s largesse has been driving debt to historic highs.”

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