PORT ST. LUCIE — Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia on Thursday identified more than $46 million in St. Lucie County’s budget as “excessive, wasteful spending” and called on local elected officials to provide property tax relief.
The county’s General Fund budget has increased by 76.01% since fiscal year 2019–2020, according to Ingoglia.
“Across 17 local government spending reviews, we have seen bloated budgets and excessive spending become the standard for local government bureaucrats,” Ingoglia said. “The residents of St. Lucie County deserve for their elected officials to demonstrate fiscal restraint, but sadly, that is lacking in this local government. I will continue to uphold my responsibility as an advocate for the taxpayers and work so that Floridians see real property tax relief.”
Greg Ungru of Americans for Prosperity said the reviews have highlighted spending increases beyond population growth and inflation.
“CFO Ingoglia has continued to identify irresponsible local government spending exceeding population growth and inflation,” Ungru said. “By being able to hold local government officials accountable, we are working towards lowering property taxes and putting money back into the pockets of the taxpayers.”
The Florida Agency of Fiscal Oversight reported a $123,140,121 increase in the county’s General Fund budget over the past six years. During that period, the population grew by 72,452 people, a 22.01% increase.
According to the review, the budget increase equates to about $1,700 for each new resident, or $6,800 for a family of four.
The report also found that 212 full-time employees were added during that time, including 22 positions within the sheriff’s office.
The agency recommends reducing the county’s millage rate by 1.04 mills, stating the reduction could be made without affecting essential services. Estimated annual savings for homeowners would be $312 for a taxable home value of $300,000, $416 for a $400,000 home and $520 for a $500,000 home.
St. Lucie County Commissioner James Clasby said in a video posted to his Facebook page that he believes that any budgeting issues that may have existed in the past are an artifact of previous administrations, and that the county has taken major strides recently to trim the fat and make the process more public.
"We've definitely started pushing to have a new approach to things," he said. "This year will be the very first year where our county budget workshops are actually televised and live streamed on Facebook. Previous to that, it was audio recorded only."
Clasby added that the commission will take a slightly different approach to the budget this year, requesting that the county administrator present three budget options: one that is "business as usual," (meaning the same approach as previous years), a flat budget with a zero percent increase, and an option where the budget is cut by three percent.
Commissioners will also be reviewing programs that they know they want to keep and ones that they would be wiling to cut, Clasby said.
Ingoglia said his office has identified more than $2.1 billion in what he described as excessive and wasteful General Fund spending across 17 local governments over the past two fiscal years, and plans to continue similar reviews statewide.