{"id":236006,"date":"2025-09-18T09:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236006\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:12:23","slug":"ron-desantis-blaise-ingoglia-bash-jacksonvilles-big-spending-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/236006\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis, Blaise Ingoglia bash Jacksonville’s big-spending budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just days to go before a municipal budget<\/a><\/strong> must be passed, state officials are squawking about what they see as profligate spending in Jacksonville<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

CFO\u00a0Blaise Ingoglia<\/strong><\/a> told reporters on the Southside that Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> administration was devoting big bucks to questionable priorities. He said the budget, proposed to be $2 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, could be 10% leaner at least, with a haircut on property taxes to match.<\/p>\n

Ingoglia\u2019s Office, via the Florida Department of Government Efficiency<\/a><\/strong> initiative, took a look at Jacksonville\u2019s books this Summer. The Spring Hill Republican offered a predictably scathing review, with a joke to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI considered doing this presentation as a hologram. But I wanted to save taxpayers\u2019 dollars,\u201d Ingoglia quipped, citing a personal branding initiative of the Mayor that greets air travelers.<\/p>\n

But the larger point was no joke at all. Rather, Ingoglia offered a \u201chigh-level\u201d attempt to \u201cillustrate how big government has gotten in the city of Jacksonville and how spending has gotten out of hand\u201d in the city with a supermajority Republican City Council.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ingoglia said property taxes have \u201cskyrocketed\u201d and that people \u201cdemand relief,\u201d a timely declaration given that Council members who want a 1\/8 mill cut were on hand Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal governments are taking that money, expanding government, paying people in the bureaucracy some pretty big raises,\u201d Ingoglia said.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville, said Ingoglia, is \u201covertaxing and overspending \u2026 to the tune of almost $200 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem didn\u2019t start with Deegan\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cbig-government apologists\u201d can \u201cdeflect,\u201d but over the last five years, four of which were under Republican Mayor\u00a0Lenny Curry<\/strong>, the overage could be as high as the \u201c$230-$240 million range \u2026 excessive and definitely wasteful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet while big spending is a \u201cRepublican and Democratic problem,\u201d Ingoglia says Deegan\u2019s spending is on \u201csteroids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Fiscal Year 2019-20, Ingoglia said the General Fund budget is up more than 50%, \u201can astounding number\u201d that \u201coutstrips wage and population growth\u201d for a population increase of under 57,000 people, equating to $12,000-plus per person, with 646 city employees hired, or one for every 88 new residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are obnoxious numbers,\u201d Ingoglia said.<\/p>\n

Salaries for city workers are up nearly 24% over the last four years, a number boosted by raises for first responders among others.<\/p>\n

All told, Ingoglia believes property tax can be cut by 1.19 million (much more than the 1\/8 mill the City Council wants to cut), and the city wouldn\u2019t have to \u201cskip a beat\u201d in cutting the \u201creckless, bloated budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of Ingoglia\u2019s press conference, Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong><\/a> said the city had room to cut as well, and likewise couldn\u2019t resist Deegan\u2019s doppelganger as an example of fiscal waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know they spent tens of thousands of dollars to create a hologram of the Mayor to put at Jacksonville International Airport. Do you want to pay property taxes to fund that? I mean, probably not, I think most people would say,\u201d the Governor said in Apalachicola.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville\u2019s fiscal picture indeed is bleak.<\/p>\n

Truth in Accounting<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0reported a per capita debt of nearly $10,000 for every person in the city, which puts Jacksonville 60th out of 75 cities ranked.<\/p>\n

But without property taxes, it could be worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety expenses, which account for 53% of total governmental costs, rose by $418.1 million adding financial strain. Property taxes, the largest revenue source, remain crucial to Jacksonville\u2019s fiscal health.\u201d<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Redfin<\/strong><\/a> notes, Jacksonville property taxes went up 60% between 2019 and 2024, roughly double the country\u2019s overall rate of increase during the same five-year period.<\/p>\n

But that money doesn\u2019t defray debt, legacy costs, or questionable decisions forged in bipartisan consensus.<\/p>\n

Pension problems are also an issue. The Tributary notes that the Police and Fire Pension Fund<\/a><\/strong> is $3 billion in debt and is just 44% funded. As of 2023, the General Employees\u2019 Pension Fund was nearly $1.4 billion in debt.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the city is moving to put police and fire in the Florida Retirement System<\/a><\/strong>, which could add more than $26.5 million a year to outflows starting in two years.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also stadium spending.<\/p>\n

The Mayor and the Council agreed to devote five years of a half-cent sales tax which was slated to be repurposed to retiring that legacy defined benefit pension debt<\/a><\/strong>, with the city pleading with Tallahassee to allow that back in 2017, to going in 50\/50 with multibillionaire Shad Khan<\/strong> in renovating the Jaguars\u2019<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0stadium, at a cost of $775 million<\/a><\/strong> to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadium and all that funding is a discussion the administration needs to have with policymakers,\u201d Ingoglia said, dodging a reporter\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

While Ingoglia says his math accounts for first responder raises, public safety splashes are a big part of the problem in the city.<\/p>\n

Deegan declined an interview request, but defended her \u201csmart, responsible budget\u201d in a prepared statement, noting that the city has \u201cthe lowest property tax rate of any major city in Florida\u201d and saying Ingoglia \u201clargely ignored the reasons for growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fiscal responsibility is recognized by the leading ratings agencies, and our investments in public safety and infrastructure are creating a high quality of life, which is the reason we have the fastest growing population in Florida. Our police and fire unions, business community, and working families across the city all agree that Jacksonville\u2019s millage rate should remain where it is, so that we can continue to invest in our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingoglia will be at City Hall again Thursday, Deegan said, and she would like to meet with him. Last time she offered, the request was rejected though.<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just days to go before a municipal budget must be passed, state officials are squawking about what…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,44221,3188,723,7310,126755,14516,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-236006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-blaise-ingoglia","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-budget","14":"tag-ron-desantis","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115224533311649699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}