Florida DOGE auditors in Broward County, reviewing finances

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Auditors with Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency were in Broward County Thursday, reviewing how the county spends its money.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his new chief financial officer made a stop in Fort Lauderdale last week to address local government spending, warning that these on-site DOGE inspections would start soon.

Noon report:

Broward County, the city of Gainesville and Manatee County are the first three in the state DOGE crosshairs, with more on the list to come.

They are being targeted for what the governor alleges is excessive, and/or wasteful spending.

“I think next year the governor is probably going to be trying to put forth a property tax legislation,” Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said. “Maybe he’s trying to find ways to support that, which I can understand. I can understand what he’s trying to do. You know, if there’s a way to help on that -- everybody would like to pay less taxes, but if you ask people ‘You want less public safety? Do you not want to have your public school there? Do you want your roads not to be taken care of?’ Then you get a different answer.”

“I think the one good thing about this with DOGE – if there’s a good thing about it – is that it is a good opportunity to educate the electorate of the voters. ‘Here’s where your money goes, here’s how it’s spent, here’s how we make sure that it’s spent well,’ and I think there’s a good story to tell there," Furr added.

During last week’s press conference, Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia called Broward County “one of the worst offenders.”

Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller responded to the remarks by telling Local 10 News that the county is financially responsible, and the numbers are filed with the state every year, explaining where most of the spending comes from.

“That’s where the massive increase has been -- the airport and the sea port -- which don’t get basically a penny of property tax. They raise the money and they spend the money only at the airport and at the sea port,” Geller explained.

State auditors are now inside the Broward County Government Center where they are reviewing financial records and data systems, and if the county doesn’t comply with their audits, legal consequences may include fines of $1,000 a day per violation.

Broward County officials confirmed that nine members of the state’s DOGE taskforce will be at the government center Thursday and Friday.

Local 10 News reached out to the Florida Department of Financial Services and the governor’s office to learn more about those on the task force who are looking into Broward’s finances, and their level of expertise.

Additionally, on July 22, DeSantis said up next could be Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

“So Miami-Dade, we have had some cooperation,” said DeSantis. “I guess you’d say some cooperation, but not good enough. And so I think it’s very possible that you see an announcement on Miami-Dade within the next couple of weeks. I think it’s also possible you can see an announcement on Palm Beach. And then there’s also municipalities in South Florida as well. But I think it’s going be probably 10 to 15 counties, municipalities, split that are going get the on-site DOGE inspections.”

MORE FROM MAYOR:

Local 10’s Christina Vazquez: “It is no secret that Broward County is a blue dot in an increasingly red state, how much do you think politics is playing part of all of this?”

Furr: “If you are trying to do a graph and just have one dot, you can’t show a trend line. But if you have a couple of more dots, we will see if there is a trend line here. They did just Gainesville and Orange County, so that is three blue dots, they did throw a red dot with Manatee County, so we will see. There may be a trend line coming, we will see.”

Vazquez: “What would you like to say to any residents who may feel like the state is big footing Broward County?”

Furr: “Local government has its place, and it is an important place. The closer you are to home, the better the laws you make, because you understand the people, you understand the needs and situations, you understand the landscape. A good example is we are concerned with climate change. Most of my district is about 10 feet about sea level, in Tallahassee they are about 200 above sea level. They don’t have to worry about it, down here we do. We are watching Monroe County have to explore retreat from places that they know sea level is going to overtake it, they know they will need to be raising roads. We have a compact with four counties where we share expertise, share professionals, share information. That is local government really working well together. Our concerns are different from other concerns in the state, and I think that is important to protect because we are trying to do the best by the people who live here.”

In fact, S&P Global last year said “the county’s economic characteristics are very strong.”

“We have one of the highest bond ratings anywhere in the country,” Furr said. “Only one and a half percent of the counties in the United States have our bond rating - a triple A bond rating.”

“If they are looking at our surtax, voters voted for that,” Furr added. “The voters said ‘we want you to deal with transportation, we want you to alleviate congestion, enhance mobility,’ and we provided guardrails -- we have an oversight board.”

The county mayor says on the metrics of inflation and population growth, “If you take those two things into consideration, the amount of your budget that should have probably gone up is around 32%. Our budget has gone up 33%. We are exactly in line with what one would expect given inflation and population growth.”

“We have no debt,” he added. “We have balanced our budget entirely. We have been attending to all of our infrastructure.”

ADDITIONAL LINKS

In October of last year, S&P Global raised Broward County’s long-term bond rating to AAA

Broward County: Penny for Transportation

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