On Blaise Ingoglia's first full day as Florida's new chief financial officer, he joined Gov. Ron DeSantis on a statewide tour Tuesday promising DOGE-style audits of Gainesville and Broward County.
These blue strongholds are just the start of DeSantis' plan to "DOGE" 10 to 15 counties and municipalities for "wasteful" spending habits, he announced Tuesday alongside Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican sworn in as CFO on Monday.
The joint appearances mark the beginning of the 2026 campaign cycle and proxy war between DeSantis and President Donald Trump in the form of the CFO race, where Ingoglia will try to defend his cabinet position against Trump-endorsed state Sen. Joe Gruters.
"Our teams, composed of auditors and skilled staff...will conduct reviews of the data systems, physical premises, and personnel of counties and cities that have thus far refused to cooperate with us to identify and report on any excessive spending patterns," DeSantis said.
The audits will begin July 31. This comes five months after DeSantis created a Florida DOGE task force to audit universities and eliminate state commissions for excessive spending.
The two Republicans spoke first from Fort Lauderdale, where they blasted Broward County for its 50 percent increase in property taxes since 2020 and shelling out nearly $800,000 for a Rose Bowl parade float. Later Tuesday, DeSantis and Ingoglia criticized Gainesville for increasing ad valorem taxes by nearly 86 percent in the past five years.
"Local governments have been running amok for way too long," Ingoglia said.
The 2026 Republican primary will see Trump-backed Gruters take on DeSantis-endorsed Ingoglia in the clearest example of a Trump-DeSantis rematch for the Florida cabinet position. Gruters, who's clashed with DeSantis in the past, was installed as the head of a legislative banking committee by the Senate President hours after Ingoglia's inauguration on Monday.
Ingoglia, who resigned his state senate seat soon after his appointment, emerged as a leading DeSantis ally in a state legislature rapidly drifting out of the governor's control.
DOGE stands for the Department of Governmental Efficiency, a new federal agency founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk before his embattled departure from the Trump administration. DOGE claims to have saved taxpayers over $190 billion.
