September 3, 2025 • 11 mins
Interview: Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia Launches Election Campaign, Talks Permanant DOGEing & More
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, thanks for listening, and welcome back to the Brian
mud Show. Time now for today's top three takeaways.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my Tom's three takeaways for you on this Wednesday,
Partisan Judges, Florida politics and no Place for Pride and
my takeaways are up you can get the Brian Mudshow
blog podcast would be up in the not so distant
and a.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Portion of my Florida politics.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Takeaways today have to do with a Blaze of Glory.
Yesterday we received this announcement. My name is Blazing Golia.
I speak four languages.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
English, profounity, starcasm.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
And really I'm running for Chief Financial Officers because I
am done watching taxpayers get screwed by government's gone wild.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And we are joined once again by Florida's CFO Chief
Fire Marshall Blaize and Goalie and Joel is up on
the dumb button just in case.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I'm ready, Okay, We're going to go there. More
to blaze.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Good morning, how you guys doing well?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Congratulations? Of course, this is no surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You had been very clear straight away that you had
every intent to run for election. In fact, you've mentioned
that you intend to be in this office for nine years.
Voters willing, so tell us what it looks like from here.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah. Look, we are having fun going around and cutting waste,
fraudened abuse. And I say having fun because I'm having
a great time protecting the taxpayers of the great state
of Florida. We've set out three things to do when
we became CFO. One was calling insurance companies out and
protecting policy holders too. Was cutting out the waste fraudened
(01:57):
abuse of local government. And three all that led to
the property tax referendum next geting we had about in
twenty six offering tax property tax relief, so we fit
the ground running. We want to continue doing this. It's
something that I'm passionate about having forward ins and we
want to continue. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm never seen another appointed official that has acted as
quickly and aggressively as you have, starting with the DOGE
audits across the state. I'm sure you are aware of this.
Florida Tax Watch has called for this effort to be
made permanent, to be part annually of Florida's government. Your
thoughts about Florid Florida Tax Watch their proposal and if
(02:37):
you would liked to do this on an annualized, an
ongoing basis.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I think someone's been leaking internal documents from my office
for Florida Tax Watch, because we are absolutely one hundred
percent doing this. We have made comments saying that these
audits are not going to going away as long as
I'm in this office. We're going to institutionalize these audits.
So we are bringing staff in and this is going
to be a yearly, monthly thing. As long as the
(03:05):
people of the Great Data Florida will have me, I'm
going to make sure that local officials are held accountable
as far as they're requal spending goes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And I know a lot of people are eager to
see what's in the reports. You had indicated they would
be approximately sixty days. How quickly do you think we'll
begin to get some of those initial audits.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I think we're going to start seeing that stuff
probably by the end of the month the beginning of
next month. You know, we're not able to go overall
of the spending, obviously, but we're going to show some
pretty stark examples of where your money is being spent.
We're also going to check on metrics as and how
much a local government employee gets paid compared to somebody
(03:44):
in the private sector, compared to somebody in the federal government,
compared to somebody in the in the state government. So
we want to give people real apples to apples comparisons,
because what we've seen is they are just taking this
extra money, expanding government, and now they're complaining that they
can't cut anywhere. We're going to show them that they can.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Speaking with Lord of CFO and Chief Fire Marshall blazeing Golia,
he has officially launched his election bid for CFO next year.
It'll be on the next year's ballot. You do have
a couple of Republican challengers that are in the race.
There's one notable one who is no longer in the race,
and this Joe Gruders, who had been backed by President Trump,
(04:23):
is now heading he's the chair of the Republican Party nationally. So,
given the landscape in this race in the Republican primary
right now, what are your thoughts? What is your outlook
from a primary perspective.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So the first thing I want to say is that
I'm super happy for JoJo's going to do a good
job at the RNC. I know how important it is
that President Trump will complete his agenda. He is a
mandate from the American people, especially when it comes to immigration.
That's why I have pledged to Chairman Gruders that I'm
going to help raise money and do everything that I
can and return majorities in the House in the Senate.
(05:03):
Having said that, I can't control who gets in the
primary a race against me, but what I can control
is doing a very very good job. I've been in
the office now for I know it seems a lot longer,
but going on six weeks right now, and I just
filed now and not six weeks ago, because I wanted
to prove to Floridians that I'm serious about the things
(05:24):
that I say I'm going to do, and I think
people would say that I've already kept a lot of
my campaign promises. I'm going to continue to do so.
The best indicator of future results is past results. So
if people like what they're seeing, hold onto your hats,
because you ain't seen nothing yet.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So the elephant in Florida politics kind of a bad
pun intended, I guess it is the DeSantis Trump situation. Obviously,
great allies prior to the governor having run for president
against Trump, we know that there have been some riffs
(06:00):
and some differences in politicians of choice and endorsements of
choice within Florida politics. Gruter is not being in this
race kind of clears that deck. We have seen the
governor and the president that have been seemingly in a
good place here. Most recently they got together Alligator Alcatraz
for that opening. Are you seeking President Trump's endorsement? Do
(06:23):
you anticipate you might be able to land it and
begin to bridge this seeming divide within the state.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would love to have the President's endorsement, you know
I'm going to do. And I think the way you
get the president's endorsement is you go out and you
do the job, You do the job well, and you
prove to the president that you're in it for the
long haul and you're in it for the right reason.
So at some point I would love to have that
conversation with the President. I was there helping him in
(06:52):
twenty sixteen get elected the first time as chairman of
the Republican Party. In twenty twenty, I was actually an
official spokesman for the camp campaign. In twenty twenty four,
I was a surrogate for the campaign. So I'm a
big Trump supporter, big Trump fan. We're going to do
everything I possibly can and we can have those conversations later.
Would love to have the president's endorsement.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And you know, you take it kind of like the
look at the Forida political saying a lot of times
you'll have candidates that will end up teaming up. Do
you have a gabnatorial preference at this point? And you
know that being said, we're likely to get a new
entrant into that race as soon as today.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, I'm running my own race. I'm at the first
thing in politics is when you're running a primary, you
don't want to last yourself onto somebody else, and you
don't want them latching onto you because you don't want
to take on their negatives that you don't want to
have them take on your negatives. So I'm concerned about
running my own race and doing the best possible job possible.
I have no plans to endorse anyone in the gubernatorial race.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You have laid out the property tax issue, which I'm
thrilled to say, the elimination of property taxes on homestead
of properties as a quarter center of your campaign. Of
course everything breaks right on this issue, it'll be on
the ballot at the same time. You are and so
you know, being a cheerleader for it, I imagine to
a certain extent would be your biggest role between here
(08:16):
and there, beyond being involved in the overall enforcement of it,
you know, starting in twenty seven if it did end
up passing, do you view that as being one of
the key differentiating issues in Republican primary circles this cycle?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
What do you mean differentiating? Just to clarify me, you're
talking about like the way property taxes, property tax relief
is being handled.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
That's right, the way forward on this issue, and the
party's approach.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
To this issue, and the same.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, I don't think it's going to be a different. Look.
We're going to go into a committee, leaks and legislative
session here. There's going to be something put on the ballot.
We're going to flesh all that out during legislative session.
But what we do know is that whatever is going
to be put on about is going to be substantial.
And not only does it have to be substantial, in
my opinion, it also has to be lasting. The current
(09:13):
homestead exemption is problematic because it's not index for inflation.
That's why we're coming back every twenty years with a
property tax revolt in the state of Florida. We need
lasting reform that when your property goes up, your homestead
exemption goes up as well. Or the other way to
do it, which would fix it once and for all,
is no property taxes on home set exemptions altogether.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And one of the one of the things that always
you know comes up when you think about the CFO
and your office as well, is you know, the reclaiming
of property. You have the Treasure Hunt website, things that
people are able to gain access to tell us a
little bit about that. At this stage the juncture also
of people might have unclaimed property, how they might go
about claiming them.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, you can go to Arto treasure Hunt dot com
and check the website and see if you have any
money sitting there. It's a way so if something if
you have money that is sitting maybe with a credit
card company or a bank, or if something got left
over behind somewhere, it sort of gets is cheated to
the state. The state takes over and then we try
(10:19):
to do everything we possibly can to try to connect
you with those property with your property. So you can
go to Florida Treasure Hunt dot com and check and
we'll get you reunited with your property. We've returned tens
of millions of dollars in unclaimed property, hundreds of millions.
Then we will continue to do so. But quite frankly,
(10:39):
I'm as important as that is. I'm worried about returning
billions of dollars to property owners in the form of
property tax cuts coming forward, So we're going to do both.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Love to hear it all right for CFO and Chief
Our Marshall, Laise and Golia, thanks for the time, best
wishes you got to take care
Hey, thanks for listening, and welcome back to the Brian
mud Show. Time now for today's top three takeaways.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my Tom's three takeaways for you on this Wednesday,
Partisan Judges, Florida politics and no Place for Pride and
my takeaways are up you can get the Brian Mudshow
blog podcast would be up in the not so distant
and a.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Portion of my Florida politics.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Takeaways today have to do with a Blaze of Glory.
Yesterday we received this announcement. My name is Blazing Golia.
I speak four languages.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
English, profounity, starcasm.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
And really I'm running for Chief Financial Officers because I
am done watching taxpayers get screwed by government's gone wild.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And we are joined once again by Florida's CFO Chief
Fire Marshall Blaize and Goalie and Joel is up on
the dumb button just in case.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I'm ready, Okay, We're going to go there. More
to blaze.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Good morning, how you guys doing well?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Congratulations? Of course, this is no surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You had been very clear straight away that you had
every intent to run for election. In fact, you've mentioned
that you intend to be in this office for nine years.
Voters willing, so tell us what it looks like from here.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah. Look, we are having fun going around and cutting waste,
fraudened abuse. And I say having fun because I'm having
a great time protecting the taxpayers of the great state
of Florida. We've set out three things to do when
we became CFO. One was calling insurance companies out and
protecting policy holders too. Was cutting out the waste fraudened
(01:57):
abuse of local government. And three all that led to
the property tax referendum next geting we had about in
twenty six offering tax property tax relief, so we fit
the ground running. We want to continue doing this. It's
something that I'm passionate about having forward ins and we
want to continue. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm never seen another appointed official that has acted as
quickly and aggressively as you have, starting with the DOGE
audits across the state. I'm sure you are aware of this.
Florida Tax Watch has called for this effort to be
made permanent, to be part annually of Florida's government. Your
thoughts about Florid Florida Tax Watch their proposal and if
(02:37):
you would liked to do this on an annualized, an
ongoing basis.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I think someone's been leaking internal documents from my office
for Florida Tax Watch, because we are absolutely one hundred
percent doing this. We have made comments saying that these
audits are not going to going away as long as
I'm in this office. We're going to institutionalize these audits.
So we are bringing staff in and this is going
to be a yearly, monthly thing. As long as the
(03:05):
people of the Great Data Florida will have me, I'm
going to make sure that local officials are held accountable
as far as they're requal spending goes.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And I know a lot of people are eager to
see what's in the reports. You had indicated they would
be approximately sixty days. How quickly do you think we'll
begin to get some of those initial audits.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I think we're going to start seeing that stuff
probably by the end of the month the beginning of
next month. You know, we're not able to go overall
of the spending, obviously, but we're going to show some
pretty stark examples of where your money is being spent.
We're also going to check on metrics as and how
much a local government employee gets paid compared to somebody
(03:44):
in the private sector, compared to somebody in the federal government,
compared to somebody in the in the state government. So
we want to give people real apples to apples comparisons,
because what we've seen is they are just taking this
extra money, expanding government, and now they're complaining that they
can't cut anywhere. We're going to show them that they can.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Speaking with Lord of CFO and Chief Fire Marshall blazeing Golia,
he has officially launched his election bid for CFO next year.
It'll be on the next year's ballot. You do have
a couple of Republican challengers that are in the race.
There's one notable one who is no longer in the race,
and this Joe Gruders, who had been backed by President Trump,
(04:23):
is now heading he's the chair of the Republican Party nationally. So,
given the landscape in this race in the Republican primary
right now, what are your thoughts? What is your outlook
from a primary perspective.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So the first thing I want to say is that
I'm super happy for JoJo's going to do a good
job at the RNC. I know how important it is
that President Trump will complete his agenda. He is a
mandate from the American people, especially when it comes to immigration.
That's why I have pledged to Chairman Gruders that I'm
going to help raise money and do everything that I
can and return majorities in the House in the Senate.
(05:03):
Having said that, I can't control who gets in the
primary a race against me, but what I can control
is doing a very very good job. I've been in
the office now for I know it seems a lot longer,
but going on six weeks right now, and I just
filed now and not six weeks ago, because I wanted
to prove to Floridians that I'm serious about the things
(05:24):
that I say I'm going to do, and I think
people would say that I've already kept a lot of
my campaign promises. I'm going to continue to do so.
The best indicator of future results is past results. So
if people like what they're seeing, hold onto your hats,
because you ain't seen nothing yet.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So the elephant in Florida politics kind of a bad
pun intended, I guess it is the DeSantis Trump situation. Obviously,
great allies prior to the governor having run for president
against Trump, we know that there have been some riffs
(06:00):
and some differences in politicians of choice and endorsements of
choice within Florida politics. Gruter is not being in this
race kind of clears that deck. We have seen the
governor and the president that have been seemingly in a
good place here. Most recently they got together Alligator Alcatraz
for that opening. Are you seeking President Trump's endorsement? Do
(06:23):
you anticipate you might be able to land it and
begin to bridge this seeming divide within the state.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would love to have the President's endorsement, you know
I'm going to do. And I think the way you
get the president's endorsement is you go out and you
do the job, You do the job well, and you
prove to the president that you're in it for the
long haul and you're in it for the right reason.
So at some point I would love to have that
conversation with the President. I was there helping him in
(06:52):
twenty sixteen get elected the first time as chairman of
the Republican Party. In twenty twenty, I was actually an
official spokesman for the camp campaign. In twenty twenty four,
I was a surrogate for the campaign. So I'm a
big Trump supporter, big Trump fan. We're going to do
everything I possibly can and we can have those conversations later.
Would love to have the president's endorsement.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And you know, you take it kind of like the
look at the Forida political saying a lot of times
you'll have candidates that will end up teaming up. Do
you have a gabnatorial preference at this point? And you
know that being said, we're likely to get a new
entrant into that race as soon as today.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, I'm running my own race. I'm at the first
thing in politics is when you're running a primary, you
don't want to last yourself onto somebody else, and you
don't want them latching onto you because you don't want
to take on their negatives that you don't want to
have them take on your negatives. So I'm concerned about
running my own race and doing the best possible job possible.
I have no plans to endorse anyone in the gubernatorial race.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You have laid out the property tax issue, which I'm
thrilled to say, the elimination of property taxes on homestead
of properties as a quarter center of your campaign. Of
course everything breaks right on this issue, it'll be on
the ballot at the same time. You are and so
you know, being a cheerleader for it, I imagine to
a certain extent would be your biggest role between here
(08:16):
and there, beyond being involved in the overall enforcement of it,
you know, starting in twenty seven if it did end
up passing, do you view that as being one of
the key differentiating issues in Republican primary circles this cycle?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
What do you mean differentiating? Just to clarify me, you're
talking about like the way property taxes, property tax relief
is being handled.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
That's right, the way forward on this issue, and the
party's approach.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
To this issue, and the same.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, I don't think it's going to be a different. Look.
We're going to go into a committee, leaks and legislative
session here. There's going to be something put on the ballot.
We're going to flesh all that out during legislative session.
But what we do know is that whatever is going
to be put on about is going to be substantial.
And not only does it have to be substantial, in
my opinion, it also has to be lasting. The current
(09:13):
homestead exemption is problematic because it's not index for inflation.
That's why we're coming back every twenty years with a
property tax revolt in the state of Florida. We need
lasting reform that when your property goes up, your homestead
exemption goes up as well. Or the other way to
do it, which would fix it once and for all,
is no property taxes on home set exemptions altogether.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And one of the one of the things that always
you know comes up when you think about the CFO
and your office as well, is you know, the reclaiming
of property. You have the Treasure Hunt website, things that
people are able to gain access to tell us a
little bit about that. At this stage the juncture also
of people might have unclaimed property, how they might go
about claiming them.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, you can go to Arto treasure Hunt dot com
and check the website and see if you have any
money sitting there. It's a way so if something if
you have money that is sitting maybe with a credit
card company or a bank, or if something got left
over behind somewhere, it sort of gets is cheated to
the state. The state takes over and then we try
(10:19):
to do everything we possibly can to try to connect
you with those property with your property. So you can
go to Florida Treasure Hunt dot com and check and
we'll get you reunited with your property. We've returned tens
of millions of dollars in unclaimed property, hundreds of millions.
Then we will continue to do so. But quite frankly,
(10:39):
I'm as important as that is. I'm worried about returning
billions of dollars to property owners in the form of
property tax cuts coming forward, So we're going to do both.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Love to hear it all right for CFO and Chief
Our Marshall, Laise and Golia, thanks for the time, best
wishes you got to take care
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