Photo: CBS 12
Florida's Chief Financial Officer spent some time on the Treasure Coast yesterday, to announce the amount of wasteful spending his FAFO team found.
Blaise Ingoglia says St. Lucie County "overtaxed and overspent" residents by about 46-million dollars last year alone.
"Since 2019, the St. Lucie County general fund budget has increased in six years $123 million."
That's a 76 percent increase. St. Lucie is one of the fastest growing counties in the state, with over 72,000 people moving there in the past six years. But Ingolia says that's no excuse for the amount of what he calls "excessive spending."
"Just because a county grows in population doesn't mean the cost to deliver services per capita, per resident, per voter, per taxpayer should go up."
He says the county hired more than 200 full-time employees since 2019 and only 22 of them were sheriff's deputies.
The CFO shared a list of the 16 local governments his FAFO, or Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight team audited, saying that they were guilty of excessive spending to the tune of a combined $2.1 billion in one year.
The CFO reminded attendees of which one is the worst offender.
"The grand winner, worst of them all so far, Palm Beach County with $344 million."
Ingoglia expects a special session soon to deal with property tax relief and says local governments will have no choice but to trim down.