OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia took direct aim at Osceola County leadership on Wednesday, labeling more than $165 million in the local budget as “excessive, wasteful spending” during a press conference in St. Cloud. The announcement, backed by a review from the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO), targets a 102.35% explosion in the county’s General Fund budget since the 2019-2020 fiscal year—a spending spike state officials argue has vastly outpaced local population growth.
According to state data, Osceola County’s budget swelled by $380,749,847 over the past six years. While the local population grew by 125,883 people during that same window—a 32.39% increase—state oversight officials calculate that for every family of four that moved to the county, the local budget expanded by $12,098.52.
“A budget increase of this magnitude for Osceola County is further proof that local governments have not been good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” CFO Ingoglia said. “Local officials would rather keep their large, bloated budgets than offer meaningful tax relief to their residents. The excessive wasteful spending identified in Osceola County to the tune of $165 million is money that could have remained in the pockets of the families that live here. This is why voters will finally be able to get real property tax relief on the ballot in November.”
David Santiago, the Strategic Director of LIBRE-Florida, joined the CFO in criticizing local spending habits. “Floridians are suffering at the hands of local government growing faster than inflation and population,” Santiago said. “Thank you, CFO Ingoglia, for holding local government officials accountable and remaining steadfast in protecting the taxpayers.”
Oversight analysts reported that Osceola County could immediately slash its millage rate by 1.81 mills without cutting back on any essential services provided to residents. If local leaders adopted this deduction, the state estimates substantial annual savings for homeowners: a home with a taxable value of $300,000 would save $544 per year, a $400,000 home would save $725, and a $500,000 home would see $907 in annual savings. The audit is part of a broader campaign by Ingoglia, who claims to have uncovered more than $3.6 billion in wasteful spending across various Florida municipalities.
Hours after the St. Cloud press conference, Osceola County Manager Donald S. Fisher pushed back, transmitting an official response to the CFO’s office on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners to provide “additional context and clarification.” Local officials argued that high-level state reviews are naturally limited by a lack of local insight and fail to account for the unique financial mandates squeezing the region.
Fisher countered that Osceola County does not arbitrarily set its own growth plans. Under Florida law, local governments must build their budgets around permanent, seasonal, and tourism projections provided directly by the state’s own Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR). To accommodate the long-term trend—an 80% population increase over the last 15 years that brought 213,000 new residents to the area—the county has had to scale up its infrastructure. Despite these demands, the county noted it has kept its general property tax millage rate locked at 6.7 mills for a decade and a half.
Local officials also dropped a massive breakdown of costs, arguing that hundreds of millions of dollars are strictly mandated by Florida state law. Over the past five years, these legally required line items included $281,239,565 for jail operations, $120,915,243 for state retirement contributions, $43,699,421 for Medicaid, $14,532,084 for the Medical Examiner, $8,743,772 for the Health Care Responsibility Act, and $3,831,944 for the Department of Health.
Furthermore, the county is legally obligated to fund local constitutional officers, which cost $689,698,249 over five years. The Sheriff’s Office alone consumed $542,556,128 of that total, marking an average annual budget increase of 9% for law enforcement.
Infrastructure and tourism have added massive weight to the county’s ledger. Osceola constructed seven new fire stations over the last five years, spent $79,903,500 maintaining existing public roads, and poured $2,801,817,364 into major regional transportation projects like Boggy Creek Road, Poinciana Boulevard, and Simpson Road. Local leaders pointed out that 10,500,000 tourists visited Osceola County last year alone, creating infrastructure wear-and-tear that far outpaces the permanent resident tax base.
The county’s defense also highlighted a unique structural hurdle: more than 67% of Osceola’s population lives in unincorporated areas, meaning the county government must act as the primary provider for municipal services that city governments typically handle elsewhere.
To limit the tax burden on current homeowners—55% of whom are protected by the state’s Save Our Homes 3% assessment cap—the county shifted the financial weight onto developers. Local records indicate that nearly 97% of the county’s tax base growth for the upcoming fiscal year is driven entirely by new construction. To capitalize on this, Osceola raised its transportation impact fees to $21,710.14, making it the highest fee of its kind in the state of Florida so that new growth is forced to pay for itself.
Finally, county administrators noted that the overall budget figures cited by the state include heavy injections of outside capital that do not rely on local property taxes. Over five years, the budget wrapped in $129,109,300 in federal grants—including funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the National Science Foundation—alongside $48,049,116 in state economic development and roadway dollars.
While the state pushes for immediate millage rate rollbacks, Osceola County leaders highlighted efficiency measures they have already taken, including adopting zero-based budgeting, cutting duplicative IT spending, and launching a joint Fraud, Waste & Abuse Hotline with the Clerk of the Circuit Court. County officials stated they welcome further direct collaboration with the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight to review the line items in detail.
READ: $1.7 Billion On The Line: Florida Senator Moody Grills FEMA Nominee Over Florida Disaster Cash
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