Earlier this month, the State Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, collected financial information from Orlando and Orange County to audit, in Orange County’s case, collecting more than 180,000 files. DOGE wants to find and cut spending on programs that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leadership deem unnecessary, including in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. “So they were looking at potential opportunities,” said Dori Howington, a Republican city commissioner in Deltona.She said the governor’s DOGE team told her this week the city could be perfect for a government test of new artificial intelligence software that could speed up the audits, use fewer people, and potentially avoid in-person visits from the governor’s staff. Howington said she spoke directly to the DOGE team leader, Eric Soskin.She relayed what he said, “He told me that the governor has had a focus on using software tools, (and) a former employee of federal DOGE actually struck out and developed this software that can do a forensic audit, and so they want to find target cities to test this on.” Before the discussion of AI technology, the city of Deltona Commissioners, at a recent Board meeting, voted to support the state’s DOGE efforts. The DOGE audits come at a time when Deltona was already planning a request for proposals to conduct a full audit. “All of the budgets post-COVID have exploded,” said Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.He didn’t mention AI when we spoke with him recently in Orlando. But he said the purpose of the DOGE audits is to scale back local spending that ballooned during the pandemic, now that those federal dollars are gone.“A lot of those programs were not meant to be permanent programs, so now local government is saying we want to keep those programs that were never supposed to be there in the first place, and that’s part of right-sizing their budgets,” Ingoglia said. How soon Deltona might be part of an AI state audit is unknown.
Earlier this month, the State Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, collected financial information from Orlando and Orange County to audit, in Orange County’s case, collecting more than 180,000 files.
DOGE wants to find and cut spending on programs that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leadership deem unnecessary, including in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“So they were looking at potential opportunities,” said Dori Howington, a Republican city commissioner in Deltona.
She said the governor’s DOGE team told her this week the city could be perfect for a government test of new artificial intelligence software that could speed up the audits, use fewer people, and potentially avoid in-person visits from the governor’s staff.
Howington said she spoke directly to the DOGE team leader, Eric Soskin.
She relayed what he said, “He told me that the governor has had a focus on using software tools, (and) a former employee of federal DOGE actually struck out and developed this software that can do a forensic audit, and so they want to find target cities to test this on.”
Before the discussion of AI technology, the city of Deltona Commissioners, at a recent Board meeting, voted to support the state’s DOGE efforts.
The DOGE audits come at a time when Deltona was already planning a request for proposals to conduct a full audit.
“All of the budgets post-COVID have exploded,” said Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.
He didn’t mention AI when we spoke with him recently in Orlando. But he said the purpose of the DOGE audits is to scale back local spending that ballooned during the pandemic, now that those federal dollars are gone.
“A lot of those programs were not meant to be permanent programs, so now local government is saying we want to keep those programs that were never supposed to be there in the first place, and that’s part of right-sizing their budgets,” Ingoglia said.
How soon Deltona might be part of an AI state audit is unknown.