Florida DOGE’s County Spending Files: The Sharpest Criticism, County by County

Here's the full report from Florida DOGE :  January 2026 Report on Local Government Spending

TALLAHASSEE — A new Florida DOGE report argues that local government is riding a wave of soaring property values into what it calls a new era of “excessive” spending, with the steepest growth concentrated outside core public safety functions. In the five largest counties alone, the report says general-fund budgets reached $10.8 billion in Fiscal Year 2025, a 49% increase from Fiscal Year 2020–21, and it contends non public-safety spending is growing far faster than population and inflation.¹

Florida DOGE, created by Executive Order 25-44 and reinforced by 2025 legislation that expanded onsite access and enforcement authority, frames the stakes in blunt terms: property taxes are controllable, and rising local budgets are squeezing homeowners. The report’s authority, it notes, sunsets July 1, 2026.²

What follows is a county-by-county summary of the report’s most aggressive critiques, written in the same spirit the document adopts: specific dollar figures, staffing counts, and program examples that DOGE flags as wasteful, ideological, or both.

Orange County: Bigger budgets, bigger payroll, and a grant pipeline DOGE says exploded

DOGE portrays Orange County as a case study in spending growth that outpaced population, then metastasized into compensation, administration, and grants. It highlights a long list of payroll-related items, including overtime and payouts for accumulated leave, alongside a sharp increase in grants to outside organizations.³

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• Grants to non-profits rose by more than $80 million, from $48.5M to $129.3M over the review period cited.³

• Employee health care spending increased 75% (DOGE cites $115M to $201M) while headcount grew far less, and it flags a large expansion in HR staffing and cost.³

• Overtime is singled out as a major driver of payroll growth, including four employees who each earned over $120,000 in overtime, and large leave payouts exceeding $1 million for a small group of employees.³

• DOGE also flags multiple DEI-related roles, spending, and events as contrary to state policy.³

Hillsborough County: A communications surge, a “public engagement” buildout, and DEI infrastructure

DOGE credits Hillsborough for some rate reductions but focuses on what it calls rapid expansion of non public-safety operations and communications functions.⁴

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• The report says the Communications Department budget doubled to $5.4M, calling out a sustained growth curve rather than a one-time increase.⁴

• DOGE flags $11.6M in non public-safety overtime and a buildout of internal communications and engagement staffing.⁴

• A major focal point is the county’s DEI apparatus, including a Diversity Advisory Council structure DOGE describes as identity-based and expensive, citing staffing and contracts tied to DEI operations.⁴

Miami-Dade County: Staffing growth outside public safety, large event spending, and climate-linked governance

Miami-Dade’s section reads like an indictment of scale. DOGE emphasizes large baseline budgets, rising non public-safety staffing, and a set of line items it characterizes as ideological or peripheral to core services.⁵

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• DOGE cites non public-safety staffing growth while public safety remained nearly flat over the timeframe it measured, framing it as a structural reallocation of government effort.⁵

• It flags $39M associated with hosting 2026 FIFA World Cup games as emblematic of discretionary spending choices.⁵

• DOGE highlights the creation and funding of an Office of New Americans and an expanded “community advocacy” function, along with other spending it frames as politically driven.⁵

• On climate governance, DOGE notes Miami-Dade’s participation in international climate commitments and criticizes what it calls wasteful climate-oriented spending rationales.⁵

Alachua County: Reserves the size of a year’s spending, plus overtime and DEI staffing

DOGE’s Alachua critique combines two themes that recur throughout the report: large reserves alongside spending growth, and DEI activities that DOGE says contravene state direction.⁶

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• DOGE highlights the county’s reserves as unusually large relative to spending, paired with significant growth in non public-safety expenditures.⁶

• It points to $6.1M in overtime (excluding public safety in the cited comparison) as a recurring budget pressure.⁶

• DOGE flags DEI staffing and planning costs, including hundreds of staff hours dedicated to DEI strategic planning and ongoing DEI organizational structure.⁶

• The report also cites DEI-linked training and programmatic priorities in county operations, including fire rescue training content DOGE characterizes as ideological.⁶

Broward County: “Arts in the Metaverse,” consulting contracts, and climate compact spending

Broward’s examples are among the most headline-ready. DOGE flags cultural spending, procurement growth, and regional climate collaboration as areas it calls excessive.⁷

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• $175,000 for “virtual art” as part of **“Arts in the Metaverse.”**⁷

• $1.1M consulting contract tied to a **convention center hotel development strategy.**⁷

• DOGE cites growth in administrative staffing in certain functions and describes DEI-linked requirements within grant participation.⁷

• The report also cites a regional “climate compact” involving Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Monroe, claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in spending on workshops, summits, and related activity.⁷

Pinellas County: Terminal leave payouts, sports consultants, IT growth, and “aggressive DEI indoctrination”

Pinellas receives a mixed assessment: DOGE notes restraint in one budget year and cites governance choices it views positively, while still listing spending and DEI examples it labels excessive.⁸

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• $2.7M in terminal leave payouts, including at least one case per year exceeding 1,000 hours of banked leave.⁸

• $466,000 in sports consulting fees connected to negotiations and relations involving the Tampa Bay Rays.⁸

• $13M growth in enterprise IT systems over three years, framed as a major internal cost driver.⁸

• DOGE’s harshest language appears in its DEI discussion, citing county training and funding it characterizes as ideological and inappropriate.⁸

Manatee County: Credit for cutting DEI, then a warning shot over capital spending and climate policy

Manatee’s section is notable because DOGE explicitly gives partial credit for cost restraint in some areas, while still calling out specific projects as lacking transparency and planning discipline.⁹

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• $35M for acquiring and moving into 100,000 square feet of new county office space, which DOGE says was executed outside long-term planning and with limited transparency.⁹

• A $3.0M water taxi expansion, including a $2.6M, 91-passenger boat, which DOGE says was justified with assumptions the county could not document to DOGE’s satisfaction.⁹

• DOGE says the county should apply the same care it used in eliminating DEI programs to reviewing major capital decisions and climate-related commitments.⁹

Palm Beach County: DEI training costs, resilience office spending, and a retreat under new management

Palm Beach is harder to summarize from DOGE’s county example pages because the report’s most detailed Palm Beach criticisms appear in the DEI section, not in a long list of spending examples. Still, the tone is clear: DOGE frames Palm Beach as having pursued equity-framed initiatives in ways it argues conflict with state policy, then partially reversed course.¹⁰

Most egregious critiques highlighted by DOGE

• DOGE cites at least $151,000 spent on DEI training, including content it describes as accusing employees of responsibility for racism and other ideologically charged framing.¹⁰

• DOGE cites over $1.1M allocated to an Office of Resilience, noting that “Social Equity” was listed first among its values.¹⁰

• DOGE also notes that Palm Beach leadership cancelled further participation in a grant program described as DEI-inspired, and that the county’s new administrator reorganized to eliminate the Office of Resilience.¹⁰

• Palm Beach also appears in DOGE’s critique of the regional climate compact spending.⁷

What the report leaves unanswered

DOGE’s report is built to persuade: it selects examples, assigns motives, and repeatedly frames spending as “virtue-signaling” rather than service delivery. It does not, in most instances, include the counties’ full rebuttals in the same sections where allegations appear, and it often treats the presence of DEI or climate language as inherently disqualifying rather than testing outcomes or cost-benefit claims in detail.

But the report does land a central point that will be politically unavoidable in Florida: local budgets grew fast, property tax collections surged with valuation increases, and voters are increasingly hostile to anything that looks like government sprawl.

Footnotes (Florida DOGE Report on Local Government Spending, Jan. 2026)

1. County budget growth in the five largest counties, including the $10.8B figure and 49% increase:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

2. Background on Florida DOGE creation and authority, enforcement expansion, jurisdictions reviewed, and sunset date:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

3. Orange County: grants growth, HR and health care spending, overtime and leave payouts, DEI spending and roles:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

4. Hillsborough County: communications spending, overtime, engagement staffing, DEI council structure and contract references:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

5. Miami-Dade County: spending and staffing framing, World Cup spending, Office of New Americans, and climate-governance critique:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

6. Alachua County: overtime, communications spending, executive pay increase example, DEI staffing and planning, and training examples:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

7. Broward County: metaverse art spending, consulting contract, DEI-linked grant criteria, and regional climate compact spending:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

8. Pinellas County: terminal leave, sports consulting, IT growth, and DEI training and program examples:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

9. Manatee County: overview plus office-space acquisition and water taxi expansion critique:

   Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

10. Palm Beach County: DEI training costs, resilience office spending, and DOGE note about elimination/reorganization; plus grant participation critique:

    Florida DOGE Report Jan 2026

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Disclosure: This Tidings Media article summarizes claims and examples presented in the Florida DOGE report cited above; it is not a finding of wrongdoing by any person or agency, and jurisdictions referenced may dispute the report’s characterizations or offer additional context not included in the cited excerpts.