Florida taxpayers are getting hammered by skyrocketing property taxes.
Local governments keep claiming they need more money.
But Blaise Ingoglia exposed one deep red county for wasteful spending that will leave you speechless.
Florida CFO drops the hammer on worst offender yet
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia just delivered his most damning audit yet — and it came from a place nobody expected.
Manatee County, a Republican stronghold on Florida’s Gulf Coast, got slammed with the worst fiscal report card of any jurisdiction Ingoglia’s Department of Government Efficiency has examined.¹
And Blaise Ingoglia exposed one deep red county for wasteful spending that will leave you speechless.
Manatee County blew past reasonable spending by $112 million
Ingoglia stood at a podium in Bradenton on Thursday and laid out numbers that should make every property taxpayer in Florida furious.
Manatee County’s general fund budget exploded by $269.94 million since 2019 — a staggering 69% increase in just five years.²
The county added 61,545 new residents during that time.³
"Once we took the budget, brought it forward, indexed for inflation and population — we found Manatee County blew past that number by $112 million," Ingoglia said.⁴
The county hired 472 new full-time employees over five years while property tax revenues skyrocketed 145.8%.⁵
"They’re hiring librarians, administrators, clerks, and expanding government at a rate that is probably unprecedented in this area," Ingoglia explained.⁶
That works out to roughly $4,388 in excessive spending for every single new resident who moved to Manatee County.
Local business owner Dave Spicer didn’t mince words about what county government has become.
"The county is a negative return on investment," Spicer stated. "Every dollar we give them, we get back less. If the county was a private business, it would’ve been bankrupt in six months."⁷
This proves wasteful spending knows no partisan bounds
Critics have accused Ingoglia of targeting Democrat-controlled counties like Broward, Orange, and Hillsborough in his statewide accountability tour.
But Manatee County demolished that talking point.
The county is "deep red" with Republican registered voters making up the majority and GOP officials controlling the Board of County Commissioners.⁸
"I will not stand idly by whether you are a Democrat or Republican," Ingoglia declared. "That is not their money. It is our money."⁹
Jeff Kottkamp, former Lieutenant Governor and representative of Florida TaxWatch, backed up Ingoglia’s mission.
"This is not meant to be an attack on local government," Kottkamp said. "It’s a wake-up call. Citizens of Florida deserve government at all levels that lives within its means."¹⁰
Through his statewide accountability tour, Ingoglia has uncovered a pattern of fiscal mismanagement totaling more than $1.1 billion in just one fiscal year across seven different counties.¹¹
The counties previously audited include Jacksonville, Orange County, Hillsborough County ($279 million in excessive spending), Alachua County ($84 million), and others.¹²
But Manatee County topped them all.
"It’s probably the worst that we’ve come across," Ingoglia said.¹³
The real victims are property taxpayers getting crushed
Manatee County administrators tried defending their budget decisions by claiming the spending increases were necessary for services.
The county released a statement saying officials were "not previously aware of the details released by the Chief Financial Officer today" but would review the findings through their newly established "Government Efficiency Liaison Committee."¹⁴
That response rings hollow when you look at the math.
The county’s property tax collections increased by 145.8% over five years while adding just over 61,000 new residents.¹⁵
Local governments across Florida have been using skyrocketing property values to justify massive budget increases without actually raising millage rates.
They claim they’re holding the line on taxes while property owners watch their bills explode year after year.
"Local governments are taking your tax dollars. They are expanding local governments. Hiring people. Giving out raises to a lot of people — some of them well-deserved, some of them not so well-deserved," Ingoglia explained. "But they are creating bureaucratic programs and now they are trying to keep them."¹⁶
The CFO made clear that his calculations already accounted for everything a county legitimately needs — including public safety increases, infrastructure for new residents, and inflation adjustments.
"We’ve accounted for everything a lean local government should need to serve its taxpayers — and Manatee County blew right past that number," Ingoglia stated.¹⁷
Everything beyond that baseline represents pure government bloat.
Property tax relief is coming in 2026
Ingoglia’s audit tour isn’t just about exposing wasteful spending.
It’s building the case for a constitutional amendment that will appear on the November 2026 ballot giving Floridians the chance to demand real property tax accountability.¹⁸
Governor Ron DeSantis and Ingoglia have been pushing hard for the elimination of homestead property taxes to provide relief for Florida families being priced out of their homes.¹⁹
The state Legislature is considering proposals that would roll back local government tax rates to 2022-23 levels and cap future increases.²⁰
Florida already has some of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country thanks to having no state income tax.
But property taxes have become the Achilles heel as local governments discovered they could expand their budgets by riding the wave of property value increases without technically "raising taxes."
The average Florida property owner pays $2,386 annually in property taxes — below the national average.²¹
But in fast-growing counties like Manatee, Orange, and Hillsborough, bills have been climbing far faster than inflation.
These DOGE audits are exposing the truth local government officials don’t want taxpayers to know.
Counties aren’t struggling to make ends meet — they’re gorging themselves on property tax revenue and expanding government bureaucracies "because they can and not because they need to," as Ingoglia put it.²²
Manatee County just proved that even Republican-controlled local governments will expand their budgets and grow their payrolls when nobody’s watching.
That’s exactly why Governor DeSantis created the Florida Department of Government Efficiency and why Ingoglia is taking this show on the road to every corner of the state.
Taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going and whether local officials are being responsible stewards of public funds.
The answer in Manatee County was a resounding no.
¹ Drew Dixon, "Blaise Ingoglia rips into Manatee County government spending as ‘the worst’," Florida Politics, October 16, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Anita Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending, calls it ‘worst we’ve come across’," Tampa Bay, October 16, 2025.
⁴ "Manatee County leads in excessive government spending, Florida CFO says," WTSP, October 16, 2025.
⁵ Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending."
⁶ Lesley Dwyer, "Manatee ‘overspent’ $112.4 million to grow government, Florida CFO says," Your Observer, October 16, 2025.
⁷ Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending."
⁸ Dixon, "Blaise Ingoglia rips into Manatee County government spending."
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending."
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Jacob Ogles, "Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia says Hillsborough County had nearly $279M in excessive spending," WFLA, September 25, 2025.
¹³ Dixon, "Blaise Ingoglia rips into Manatee County government spending."
¹⁴ "Manatee County leads in excessive government spending," WTSP.
¹⁵ Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending."
¹⁶ Ogles, "Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia says Hillsborough County had nearly $279M."
¹⁷ Padilla, "Florida CFO flags $112M in Manatee County overspending."
¹⁸ Dixon, "Blaise Ingoglia rips into Manatee County government spending."
¹⁹ "Florida Issues Update on Property Tax Cut Proposal," Newsweek, August 22, 2025.
²⁰ Gabrielle Russon, "As Florida lawmakers consider property tax cuts, local governments defend spending," Click Orlando, September 23, 2025.
²¹ "Florida Property Tax Calculator," SmartAsset, accessed October 17, 2025.
²² Dixon, "Blaise Ingoglia rips into Manatee County government spending."
