ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has visited 12 cities and counties to find what it claims is wasteful government spending.
The DOGE team has made claims that there are close to $1 billion in wasteful spending in five of its stops, but Central Florida leaders said they want more specifics.
Originally, the state estimated the audits would take about 60 days after they started in early August. But the governor’s office told Spectrum News there is not an estimate on when the findings would be published.
The city of Orlando and Orange County are under investigation by DOGE.
“Governments have become reckless and are going wild with our tax dollars,” said Blaise Ingoglia, the state’s chief financial officer.
Ingoglia said the city of Orlando has spent $460,000 since 2020 to count trees, $70,000 for hot yoga for employees and $150,000 over three years to help people avoid deportation.
“It was kind of nonsensical really,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said of the claims.
Dyer said the hot yoga is part of the employee wellness program, the Orlando Center for Justice that provides legal advice to immigrants and others is given a grant from the city and the tree inventory program is not funded with property taxes.
“Property tax goes to fund the services that are provided to you at your home, whether it is police, fire response, cleaning streets, sweeping streets, garbage pickup those types of things,” Dyer said.
DOGE also called out Orange County for $223,000 for LGBT youth services and $240,000 related to planning diversity, equality and inclusion activities.
“I don’t really know what they are talking about,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said. “They haven’t really been specific in their criticism.”
Demings said he has not had communication with the DOGE team and would like to have those conversations.
“We will respond with balance to whatever they say, but obviously, they have an agenda to attack different constituents and groups based on their personal beliefs and their political agendas,” Demings said.
The state’s CFO said that all Florida cities and counties will be held accountable by DOGE.
“If you are a county or a city that raised their millage rate a couple of weeks ago and actually raised property taxes on people this year when people are hurting, you can expect a call from our office,” Ingoglia said.
One example is Seminole County, which just raised property taxes, but leaders there say no word yet on a DOGE audit.
Dyer’s office has said the city has not raised its millage rate for more than 10 years, but the DOGE team has already visited Orlando as part of its investigation.