Broward’s top administrator is challenging the findings of the state’s chief financial officer, who is accusing county government costing taxpayers almost $190 million by refusing to rein in spending while property values have outpaced inflation over the last five years.
General spending in Broward, the part of the budget funded by property tax revenues, only went up by $536 million between 2020 and 2025, considerably less than the $617 million asserted by Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, according to Broward County Administrator Monica Cepero.
In an email to the County Commission late Tuesday, Cepero said she did not know where Ingoglia got his information to determine how much additional spending was necessary and how much was wasteful.
At Ingoglia’s news conference earlier Tuesday, he calculated that Broward’s budget should only have grown by about $428 million, accounting for inflation and population growth as part of his math.
“Thus far, we have been unable to verify the sources of data used to arrive at (Ingoglia’s) values,” Cepero said in an emailed letter to county commissioners late Tuesday. “For example, neither the population growth nor the inflationary index match commonly used sources, nor can we confirm the correct adopted general fund budget amounts were used in his calculations.”
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, at Keiser University in Pembroke Pines. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
For Ingoglia, anything above a $428 million budget increase from 2020 to 2025 represents out-of-control government growth, and while he promised specific examples of waste, fraud and abuse after the DOGE audit is complete, he did not provide any on Tuesday.
“What I’m here to tell you today is that the government expansion itself is waste, fraud and abuse,” Ingoglia said.
The budget passed by the county in 2019 (for fiscal year 2020), was approximately $1.38 billion, said Cepero. The budget for fiscal year 2025 (passed last year) was $1.923 billion.
Broward and several other large counties and cities were visited over the summer by inspectors from the state’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, which works under the chief financial officer to identify examples of wasteful spending.
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Ingoglia said in his news conference that he and the governor are looking to place a referendum on the November 2026 ballot to eliminate homesteaded property taxes altogether.
In Broward and elsewhere, officials have criticized the DOGE effort as political grandstanding — the allegations of waste, they say, will prove to be differences in political priorities, with Gov. Ron DeSantis equating “waste” with spending on climate change, diversity and “pet projects,” among other things.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/10/01/broward-challenges-state-finance-officers-waste-accusations/
