City officials thought they could get away with their spending habits under the radar.
The Florida Department of Government Efficiency had other ideas.
And Ron DeSantis used three words to describe Pensacola’s spending that sent city hall scrambling.
The Florida Department of Government Efficiency – which operates under the DOGE acronym – has been reviewing local government books since July, looking for waste and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
DeSantis’ audit teams have been making on-site visits to cities and counties throughout Florida, digging through spending records and policies to uncover exactly where taxpayer dollars are going.
What they found in Pensacola left DeSantis reaching for his harshest language yet.
DeSantis drops the hammer on Pensacola’s woke agenda
DeSantis didn’t mince words when his team released their findings about the Florida Panhandle city.
According to the DOGE report, too much money has been spent "recklessly" on what DeSantis classified as "woke initiatives."
That’s $450,000 annually that DeSantis says should have gone to roads, police, or tax relief instead of left-wing political activism.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1973489814713340045
The breakdown tells the whole story of how local Democrats operate when they think nobody’s watching.
DOGE found $150,000 per year flowing to a management company that brings drag shows to the city’s Saenger Theatre.
Another $300,000 went toward what officials call a "strategic equity plan."
The city also spent money on what DOGE identified as a residential "equity survey."
But here’s where it gets interesting – Pensacola officials claimed they had no idea this audit was even happening.
City Public Information Officer Jason Wheeler issued a statement saying officials "learned of the Florida DOGE task force findings just like everyone else, from social media posts."
Wheeler added that while they hadn’t "received any formal communications from Florida DOGE," the city was "currently gathering information and will respond accordingly."
That’s either a stunning admission of incompetence or a flat-out lie, because DOGE teams don’t conduct these audits in secret.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1973434585431286058
City hall went into full damage control mode
You could practically hear the scrambling from Pensacola’s city government once DeSantis went public with his findings.
First came Wheeler’s weak attempt at playing victim, claiming they found out about the audit results from social media like regular citizens.
Then, by Thursday evening, they rolled out a more detailed response that read like it was written by a crisis management firm.
City officials suddenly started bragging about their "long-standing partnership" with Legends Global, the company managing the Saenger Theatre for over two decades.
Officials claimed the theatre hasn’t cost taxpayers money, but instead generated more than $1 million in operational profits over the past three years.
But here’s what they don’t want you to focus on – that $150,000 annual payment to bring drag shows to a publicly funded venue.
The city also tried to justify their $300,000 "equity" spending by rebranding it as community engagement.
They called it the "Equitable Development Values Survey" and the "Strive to Thrive: Pensacola 2035 strategic plan."
City officials claimed the strategic plan was a $132,000 project developed over a year with public input, and that the survey helped plan a stormwater park based on "feedback from local taxpayers."
Sure it did.
The pattern emerges across Florida
Look, Pensacola isn’t operating in a vacuum here.
DeSantis’s DOGE teams found the same playbook being used in Democrat-run cities and counties throughout Florida.
Jacksonville spent $75,000 on a hologram of Mayor Donna Deegan at the airport – because apparently greeting visitors in person wasn’t good enough.
Gainesville pays its "director of equity and inclusion" $189,000 per year, which is more than many police officers and firefighters make.
Orlando dropped nearly $70,000 on hot yoga classes for government employees and almost half a million dollars "to count trees."
Alachua County funneled $31,000 to Planned Parenthood for their "Teen Time" program targeting kids between 13 and 19.
This is your tax money at work, folks.
Here’s what this really means
The timing of these revelations couldn’t be more perfect for property owners getting crushed by rising taxes.
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia explained that local governments have been taking advantage of rising property values to collect taxes far beyond what would be needed to keep pace with inflation and population growth.
Translation: they’re using your home’s increased value as an excuse to fund their woke pet projects.
Based on that standard, Ingoglia calculated excessive spending totals of $199 million in Jacksonville, $190 million in Orange County, $178 million in Hillsborough County, $84 million in Alachua County, and $189 million in Broward County.
For folks who work for a living and own homes, this should make you furious.
While you’re struggling with mortgage payments, insurance costs, and grocery bills, local politicians are throwing your tax dollars at drag shows and equity surveys.
DeSantis gets it, which is why he created DOGE in the first place.
"Under my leadership, Floridians can continue to expect fiscal responsibility at the state level – and we are working to bring relief to our citizens being squeezed by property taxes at the local level," the Governor stated.
That’s exactly the kind of leadership conservative voters want to see.
These aren’t isolated incidents or accounting errors – they’re part of a coordinated effort by leftist politicians to use government budgets as vehicles for their cultural agenda.
The difference is that DeSantis refuses to let them get away with it anymore.
And judging by the scrambling response from Pensacola’s city hall, they never expected someone would actually audit their books and call them out publicly.
That’s what happens when you elect a Governor who fights back.
¹ Hannah O’Gara, "Governor Ron DeSantis, DOGE, accuse Pensacola of reckless spending on ‘woke initiatives’," WKRG, October 3, 2025.
² Gracie King, "Florida DOGE audit exposes alleged wasteful spending in Pensacola," WKRG, October 1, 2025.
³ David Bauerlein and Alan Festo, "DeSantis, CFO Ingoglia cite Gainesville and Alachua County expenditures as wasteful spending," USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, October 2, 2025.
