Alachua County And The City Of Gainesville Will Be Audited By The State On August 13th & 14th

The City of Gainesville has increased property tax revenue from $36.6 million in FY2020 to $68 million in FY2025 and an estimated $74 million in FY2026, more than doubling the FY2020 property tax revenue over six fiscal years. Moreover, just recently the City if Gainesville Commission voted to increase the property tax rate by almost 15%.

While the city budget has been bloating, the taxpayers of Alachua County have watched as their county government has increased its annual budgeted spending from the General Fund by over $80 million, and spending from other funds by approximately $200 million.

The state auditors are requesting information from the county and the city regarding procurement and contracting including contracts in excess of $10,000, personnel compensation, management practices, DEI, the county's goals for the Green New Deal — which identifies any goals or targets for carbon or emissions reduction that have been adopted — grants and other financial management and homeless services.

The auditors have been tasked by the governor of Florida to identify and report on any type of excessive spending at the city and municipal level. Governor DeSantis wants to know, "What has the City (and the County) done with the money?"

Florida's Chief Financial Officer, Blaise Ingoglia says, “What local governments need to understand is, it’s not their money; it’s your money, the taxpayer money, and we all need to be better fiscal watchdogs for what they’re spending it on… We cannot start off with this faulty assumption that the level of government and spending that they have right now is needed, because we know that it’s not.” He said the DOGE audits would encourage local governments to “start cutting back now, or the voters are going to do that on the ’26 ballot," because Governor DeSantis is on a mission and will be campaigning in 2026 for property taxes to be eliminated entirely in the state of Florida. He wants local city and county officials to be held accountable for the budgets they manage and for any excessive spending.