Gov. DeSantis, Blaise Ingoglia spotlight Donna Deegan hologram as example of local waste

Gov. Ron DeSantis^[1] appeared Wednesday with Jacksonville’s Democratic Mayor, Donna Deegan^[2].

But there was a catch.

Deegan was present in holographic form^[3], allowing the Governor and CFO Blaise Ingoglia^[4] to spotlight what Republicans see as wasteful local spending in Jacksonville and beyond. The Republican leaders are pushing to eliminate property taxes on homestead properties and the ongoing audits from the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also known as the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO).

Standing feet from the hologram at the Jacksonville International Airport^[5], DeSantis said Wednesday that people were being “squeezed by property taxes.” Old people face pressures, he said, while young people are being cheated of the American dream.

While the state is “running out of taxes to cut,” DeSantis said local governments are a different story.

Ingoglia said DeSantis told him a few years ago that property taxes were “getting out of hand,” which the CFO attributes to “reckless” local spending.

Ingoglia has previously, he spotlighted increased spending since 2019 in localities, and called out Deegan as contributing to almost $1 billion already discovered in local spending in five counties, including Duval, and a possible “tens of billions” of overspending in “every city and every county” that goes beyond essential services.

“You say you need every dollar,” he chided. “The taxpayers disagree with you.”

While “government apologists,” “tax-and-spend politicians” and their “allies in the liberal media” may argue differently, Ingoglia said critics are “tone deaf on the issue of property taxes,” while citizens yearn for a “taxpayer advocate in Tallahassee.”

Ingoglia then took aim at affordable housing initiatives, saying the way to solve the affordability issue is to cut property taxes, before giving examples of so-called waste, fraud and abuse that he says back up his claims.

That included the hologram, which he said was $75,000 of “wasteful spending.”

Ingoglia also took aim at Orlando’s poet laureate program, “training on micro-aggressions” and hot yoga classes for city employees, as well as a census on trees in the city.

The CFO also targeted Pensacola and its “hot neon” sign saying “Welcome to Pensacola,” a film festival in Hillsborough, Gainesville’s diversity, equity and inclusion director, and Palm Beach County’s para-transit costs. He presented all as “wasting” taxpayer money.