- April 7, 2026
In recent weeks, Florida's chief financial officer has singled out three counties for "excessive, wasteful spending."
But one Volusia County Councilman said "those assessments have to be tempered with what our local public wants to spend money on."
"There's kind of a dichotomy between what the CFO thinks ought to be spent and what the local public thinks ought to be spent, in some cases," Councilman Jake Johansson said during his closing comments in the April 7 council meeting.
So far, CFO Blaise Ingoglia and his Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, shortened to FAFO, have identified Flagler, Citrus and St. Lucie counties for "wasting" $59 million, $39 million and $46 million of taxpayer funds, respectively. During Monday's Flagler County Commission meeting, some officials denounced Ingoglia's report, calling it a campaign stunt and one that disrupted public trust in its local officials.
For his report, Ingoglia used a formula based on pre-COVID budgets. It calculates waste by taking the 2019 budget and accounting for inflation and population growth. He is considering any excess fees above that figure as wasteful spending.
When it comes to "non-mandatory" spending, Johansson said, the public should have a say in it. He listed Volusia Forever as an example — the land conservation program was renewed in 2020 by 75.6% of voters.
Public education, the councilman said, is another "well worth" use of taxpayer funds and a core value of the council.
In a video posted on Monday on Ingoglia's Facebook page, the chief financial officer criticized local governments for having "large, bloated budgets" while trying to extract more from taxpayers in the form of sales tax and other fees.
"I've never heard elected officials — people — be so tone deaf in my life," Ingoglia said as he stood in front of a podium with the words "FAFO audit."
One citizen spoke about Ingoglia's FAFO audits during public comment. John Nicholson, of Daytona Beach, said the state is conducting these reports as a way to push local governments to lower taxes.
"They're targeting with the idea of, 'They want to say there's too much money in the budget, therefore lower taxes,'" Nicholson said. "And if they did that for the other three that I looked at, they're going to do it to us. ... They're just not looking close enough into why things are in the budget."
