(The Center Square) – Miami-Dade County has spent $302 million more than it should have since 2019, Florida’s chief financial officer said Thursday.
“That is over and above the amount they would have needed to run the government, according to our calculations, indexing for inflation plus population,” Blaise Ingoglia said at a news conference.
Ingoglia has been travelling the state in recent weeks highlighting what he maintains is excessive spending by local governments and real estate assessments increases.
So far, Ingoglia has identified $1.68 billion in overspending by local governments. The Miami-Dade estimate is the largest so far in raw dollars, but not when divided per resident, he said.
“This is an awfully big number,” he said of the Miami-Dade estimate.
Since 2019, the Miami-Dade general fund budget has increased from $1.68 billion to $2.5 billion, the CFO said.
“In just five years, Miami-Dade’s budget grew by $844 million,” Ingoglia said. “That’s a 50% increase, outpacing inflation and population growth. There is no way to put this but you are being overtaxed.”
Miami-Dade’s population during that time did increase by 65,500, Ignolia acknowledged.
“That is a big amount for a lot of smaller counties but not so big for a county as large as Miami-Dade,” he said.
For every new resident, Miami-Dade spent $13,000, based on the growth of the budget, the CFO said.
“If a family of four moved into Miami-Dade, your local government is spending more than $51,000,” he said.
In the private sector, having more customers often lowers the cost per person, Ignolia said.
“That’s not what happened here,” he said. “In Miami-Dade, they are taking your money and they are using it to expand government.”
Miami-Dade expanded its number of full-time employees by 2,843 during those five years, according to Ingoglia. Only 478 of those were firefighters or police officers, he said.
“That means your government took all this money and hired a bunch of bureaucrats,” Ingoglia charged.
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting comment from Miami-Dade leaders.
