State Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Blaise Ingoglia criticized Orange County on Monday for “wastefully and excessively spending” about $190 million in taxpayer money, but Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings refuted the CFO’s claims by saying Ingoglia was using “fuzzy math.” 

Since 2020, the Orange County budget has surged by 53.62% ($559 million), exceeding the population growth, which has gone up by approximately 5% (79,000 people) during that same time period, according to a Sept. 15 statement from Ingoglia. This would mean for each new resident, the county budget grew by $7,074, and for a family of four, it went up by $28,296.

The mayor said that the Orange County population had gone up by 125,488 in the last five years, not the estimated 79,000 in the CFO’s statement. Demings cited his number from the Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (B.E.B.R.) report. Using the B.E.B.R. number, that means the population has increased 8%.

As of 2024, the current Orange County population is about 1.534 million, based on most recent available data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).

During the five-year period, the county also hired 661 new employees. Government worker wages rose 24.5% excluding benefits, outpacing increases in both the private sector and state government jobs in the area.

Orange County is overtaxing residents by $148 per person, Ingoglia said. The county could lower its millage rate by 0.86 mils without impacting services, providing significant tax relief, the CFO’s statement recommended. 

“This money belongs in the hands of taxpayers, not the bureaucrats who have proven to be fiscally irresponsible,” Ingoglia said in the statement. “Orange County is wastefully and excessively spending nearly $200 million in taxpayer funds, and it is high time that the taxpayers are armed with the information that they need to hold their locally elected officials accountable. The people of Florida are sick and tired of the wasteful spending of tax dollars.”

Demings refuted Ingoglia’s claims in a Monday news conference at the Orange County Administration Building in Orlando, saying the county’s budget increases were tied to population growth, inflation and the need to provide services for both residents and a large tourist population. 

“According to our numbers, our general fund increased by $474 million and not $559 million as stated by the CFO,” Demings said. “In other words, he used some fuzzy math in his discussions earlier today. What I want our residents to know is that your local government has been responsive to need, to the needs of this community. I want them to know that our taxes remain relatively low, and we pay our employees what they deserve.”

Calling Orange County the number one tourist destination in North America, Demings cited numbers from the not-for-profit organization trade association Visit Orlando. In 2024, 75.3 million tourists visited Orange County with the economic impact of $94.5 billion. This means that the county must provide services to both its residents and tourists. 

Much of Orange County’s increased spending went to public safety, with new positions and significant pay raises for employees and law enforcement, Demings said. The county gave a 16% over salary increase, or 4% per year, for regular staff, and the county is in the middle of negotiations with the fire union for significant raises, he added. 

Demings said the state has failed to address the high cost of property insurance, housing and healthcare, and has left local governments to deal with issues like homelessness without giving significant financial support. 

“Here’s what the residents of the state of Florida are sick and tired of,” Demings said. “They’re sick and tired of those bureaucrats who, in Tallahassee, are dividing us along political lines. The rhetoric that you heard today is simply political.”

In late August, Ingoglia subpoenaed Orange County employees “who may have knowledge of efforts to obstruct the state’s ongoing local government DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] audits” that were initiated in early August, according to an Aug. 27 statement from the state.  

The Florida DOGE, which Governor Ron DeSantis established last February, audited Orange County because of the county’s annual $330 million increase in additional ad valorem tax collections – an increase of over 50%. 

The additional ad valorem tax increase has been part of a growth in annual total expenditures of more than $1.6 billion over the past five years, which represents a 57% increase in spending, the letter added.

During the press conference, Demings never addressed the specific numbers that Florida DOGE cited for auditing Orange County. However, the mayor said that reducing the county budget by $200 million on an $8.2 billion budget would be a 2.4% decrease. 

“I can tell you today, even with $8.2 billion, it simply is not enough to solve the myriad of issues that we have as a local government,” Demings said. “If the state really cared about us here at the local level, they would sit down and talk to us like decent folk would do, rather than issue subpoenas.”