Florida’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a state task force established by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February, plans to look into Orange County’s finances to seek out examples of what they view as wasteful spending.

The state-level DOGE is modeled after a similar initiative launched by the Trump administration upon his return to White House in January, which was initially spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

In Florida, Orange County is just the latest municipality — in addition to Republican-leaning Manatee County, and bluer areas such as Broward County and Gainesville — to be targeted by “government efficiency” audits. Planned audits of Florida municipalities’ spending were announced by DeSantis at a press event in Fort Lauderdale last week.

“Having entrusted their governments with the power to tax, the citizens of Florida have a right to expect that their elected officials will spend the collected funds responsibly, not recklessly, and on truly necessary programs,” reads a July 24 letter from Florida DOGE, addressed to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

According to the letter, signed by newly appointed chief financial officer Blaise Ingoglia and two other state officials, Orange County has seen a growth in annual total expenditures “of over $1.6 billion over the past five years,” representing a 57 percent increase in spending.

The Florida DOGE team, in partnership with Ingoglia and the Office of Policy and Budget (OPB), has requested access to the county’s data systems, physical premises and personnel at the Orange County Administration Building on Aug. 5 and 6.

They plan to specifically zero in on about 60 different areas of the county’s finances, including county contracts; salaries of county staffers; spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives “or so-called anti-racism;” spending on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (which they associate with the progressive Green New Deal movement); and direct spending on programs addressing homelessness, among other requests.

Orange County Mayor Demings shared in a statement that the county is “in receipt of the Florida DOGE letter and plan[s] to fully cooperate.” Demings noted, however, that Orange County’s population has increased by 81,000 since 2020, a number he said is greater than the population of 29 out of Florida’s 67 counties.

“This substantial growth has placed increasing demands on public services across the county,” Demings continued. “For example, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has experienced a five-year increase of over 7 percent in calls for service. Likewise, Orange County Fire Rescue has seen call volumes rise by as much as 15 percent comparatively over the past five years. These trends highlight the mounting pressure on essential services as our community continues to expand.”

The mayor’s statement does not address the state government’s increased scrutiny on government spending involving DEI or environmental sustainability initiatives, although the county has already begun self-censoring in recent months in response to executive orders issued by the Trump administration.

The Orange County Commission, made up of six county commissioners plus Mayor Demings, already suspended the county’s Minority Women Business Enterprise Program “and any other programs that may be considered DEI” earlier this month, in anticipation of potential scrutiny from federal officials. Officials within the Trump administration have described any sort of program offering race- or sex-based preferencing as “illegal discrimination,” “dangerous” and even “immoral.”

The county’s legal team was concerned that continuing to operate any DEI-related program would carry the risk of the federal government withholding the hundreds of millions of dollars the county receives from the federal government each year in recurring and non-recurring grant funds.

“We are a subdivision of the United States, and it is what it is at this time,” Demings said at the time. “You may not like it — I don’t like it — I think most of us don’t like it, but we cannot risk the other things that we’re able to do and must do to take care of our community.”

The audit by DeSantis’ new DOGE task force comes as the Orange County Comptroller’s office itself released a new audit Tuesday of the county’s multimillion-dollar tourism promotion agreement with VisitOrlando, a not-for-profit regional tourism promoter.

The audit, first requested by Mayor Demings and county commissioners last year, flagged several issues that have since been addressed or otherwise acknowledged by county management, according to the audit report. Red flags identified by the Comptroller’s Office include a misclassification of public funds by VisitOrlando (the largest recipient of Orange County’s tourist tax development funds) and a finding that the county “did not adequately monitor VO’s compliance” with its agreement.

“Monitoring procedures will be established for the staff assigned this responsibility to ensure effective oversight and compliance with all contractual requirements,” reads a response from county management, sent to assistant comptroller Wendy Kittleson on July 25. “We value the collaboration between the County Administration and the County Comptroller’s Office and appreciate the value that it adds to ensuring continuous improvement, transparency, and accountability in the use of Tourist Development Tax proceeds within the community,” the response adds.

The state DOGE audit also comes as DeSantis himself faces scrutiny (and criticism from critics) over the more than $200 million the state has committed to private contractors so far to construct and run the new immigrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades, named “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials.

According to the Miami Herald, the detention camp will cost an estimated $450 million annually. “It’s shaping up to be an expensive endeavor for taxpayers, though the state hopes the federal government will ultimately foot the bill,” the Herald notes.

Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo-Smith, D-Orlando, described the DOGE audit of Orange County on the social media platform X as a distraction from the DeSantis administration’s efforts to hide its spending on the Everglades detention facility.

“GOP mega donors are getting rich off no-bid contracts to build this disgusting prison camp with our taxpayer money, but @DOGEFla wants you to look over here,” Smith wrote, in response to reporting on the planned audit.

“The DOGE bros will be at the Country Administration Building to demand access to data systems, bully staff, and shakedown local leaders on Aug. 5-6,” the Democrat continued. “Knock yourselves out! We welcome transparency and accountability.”

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This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2025.

Florida DOGE zeroes in on Orange County’s spending

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