December 5, 2025 • 8 mins
Chief Financial Officer Ingoglia joins Joel Malkin on the Brian Mudd Show to announce that Palm Beach County leads the way in the amount of "excessive wasteful spending" over the past year. He also shares details about his Legislative Priorities to Fight Illegal Immigration.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Larta Chief Financial Officer Blazing Golia in Palm Beach County
yesterday touting the results of his FAFO Florida Agency for
Fiscal Oversight audits across the state.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We have audited and done spending calculations for ten local
government budgets and so far we have exposed over one
point five billion dollars with the BEE in excessive wasteful spending.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And do be us honors for Palm Beach County as
we are joined by CFO and Fire Marshall. Blazing Golia,
thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
First of all, of course, good morning, this.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is it is a good morning, but this is not
good news for Florida taxpayers. Give give us the give
us the bullet points here.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah. Sure. So yesterday we were in Palm Beach County.
We did a spending analysis, a FAFO audit of pom
Beach County found that they have overspent and overtaxed their
citizens citution are three four million dollars just last year alone.
That is a number. That is the largest number that
we have found so far. The previous honors, dubious honors
(01:10):
went to Miami Dade when we found three hundred and
two million, palm beaches at three hundred and forty four million,
which brings the grand total of wasteful and excessive spending
that we have founded eleven governments so far to just
under one point nine billion dollars. The key takeaways here
is that government is taking the extra property tax revenue,
expanding governments, spending money on things that they shouldn't be
(01:33):
spending it on, and expanding programs that it should have
never been there in the first place. Taxpayers deserve better.
I'm going to continue being a taxpayer advocate for them,
and we're going to call out this success.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And this is all focused on bringing property taxually for
Florida homeowners. I just I want you to play a
twenty second SoundBite from you yesterday. I think this really
hits home.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Governments keep on talking about affordable housing, affordable housing. They
want to appropriate more money for affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
They want to go and get grants from.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
The federal government for affordable housing. They want to go
get appropriations from the state for affordable housing. You know,
it's the easiest way to give people a more affordable home.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is cut their property taxes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
But that involves cutting their budgets which are not interested in.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, I thought that really hit home yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I couldn't hear the audio, but yes, this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Is oh you were talking about. You were talking about
affordable housing and local governments talk about how important it
is and how they have to borrow money and take grants,
and the simplest way you said is just to bring
the tax relief.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Everyone running for office is running on a platform or
bringing affordable housing, and their idea of affordable housing is
to create more government programs. And government programs do nothing
in the long term but exacerbate the housing issue. So
the easiest way they can do it is just cut
their property taxes. But they refuse to do it. They
won't do it. They're unwilling to do it because that
(02:55):
means to cut their own budgets.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The other thing I guess part of the this was that,
you know, the exponential rise in this wasteful spending came
about while the county only grew what I think you
noted eighty thousand and eighty Yeah, in popularity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That's how you can really put that in context and
understand that what we're saying is accurate and it's true.
So Palm Beach County had a growth of population a
little over eighty thousand, but their budget grew over the left.
So over the last five years, the county grew about
eighty thousand people, but their budget grew almost nine hundred
(03:34):
million dollars. So how can you justify that huge increase
in budget to deliver services, additional services to eighty thousand people.
That just doesn't make any sense. It's nonsensical. In fact,
when you do the math, every family of four that
moved into Palm Beach County, Palm Beach County's budget increased
by almost forty thousand dollars. That just doesn't make any sense.
(03:58):
You can actually make the argument as as populations grow
that the cost for person should be going down, not
exponentially up like we'll seeing in Palm Beach County.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This wasteful spending. And I know you've mentioned before that
the doge the governor has more control over announcing kind
of the doze stuff, the specifics, but any way of
knowing from you how much of this wasteful spending was
on DEI.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
There's a big amount on DEI and that. But look,
what people need to understand is that the wasteful and
excessive spending that we are highlighting. Most of that is
in personnel. That is the growth of government itself. This
means that they are adding full time equivalents, they're adding
they're adding people, they're adding employees, they are giving employees raises,
(04:52):
and that's why they don't want to cut because they
just fired these people, never needing them in the first place.
So I would say a good eighty percent of what
you're seeing and waste and excesses the growth of government itself. Now,
local governments are going to say, hey, point to a
specific line item, but that's not what this exercise is about.
What this exercise is about how much government has grown
(05:15):
over inflation and population. Other states like Colorado actually have
a constitutional amendment that says that government can't grow and
you cannot spend over what inflation and population allows. So
we're using that same metric and we're showing that counties
like tom Beach County are blowing them out of the water.
Now I will say this is that I know that
(05:35):
there is new leadership in tom Beach County and they
seem very eager to bring down the costs and offer
property tax relief. So I'm a little hopeful, but government
is government. Government is always going to do what government does,
and that is grow and waste tax payer money and
ask for more money. So I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Be watching now, I know really, and I want to
get to your legislative priority for the fight illegal immigration,
and but I just wanted to You had mentioned how
local governments will say, well, if we could, I mean,
it's going to hurt law enforcement and fire and we
do have the PbSO budget pretty high because it's a
huge agency. But I wanted you to speak to that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, So what's funny about this is then you're right.
Local governments will say that the sheriff's budget takes a
huge part of the budget. But we analyze pbso's budget
compared to the general fun budget of the county because
that's part of it. And actually the sheriff's budget actually
went down in dollars, so we can actually prove empirically
(06:37):
that the sheriff is actually being much more fiscally conservative
than what the county is. In fact, if you pull
the sheriff's budget out, the numbers for the county actually
get worse. So PbSO is actually doing a very good
job with keeping government constrained.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right. This week you announced your list of legislative
priorities to discourage legal immigrants from coming to some of
the things that you talk about wanting to, you know,
keep illegals from getting like downtown payment assistance on a mortgage,
commercial driver's license. Yeah, I would have sworn, and I
think most people listening would that we already don't allow that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We don't. We don't allow down payment assistance. But there
are companies out there, nonprofits that continue to market to
illegal immigrants in the state of Florida saying that they
can offer down payment assistance. But here my concern for
down payment specifically is that you have a lot of
states that do that. I never ever wanted Florida to
do that in the future. So I want it in
(07:38):
the law now because I do not know what the
state of Florida is going to look like twenty years
from now. Yes, we have conservative leadership right now, but
you never know if it's going to turn I want
it on the books now in law saying that that
is prohibited.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So this is something that you're introducing for lawmakers legislators
in January to start working on correct.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
But there's also a lot of other big proponents. You know,
other states, a driver's license and auto insurance companies actually
give them auto insurance and they drive on Florida's roads.
And if you get into an accident with an illegal immigrant,
I think that the illegal immigrant should be automatically at
fault and near insurance companies should pay because they shouldn't
be on the road in the first place.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
All right, Well, we will make sure that folks know
about this. I know there's several prongs to this. We
just don't have time to get into all of us.
You could join us again over the season if you like.
We'd be happy to have you. State, CFO, Blaze, and Goolia.
Thank you once again for coming on with us.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Of course, take care of merk Christmas everyone,
Larta Chief Financial Officer Blazing Golia in Palm Beach County
yesterday touting the results of his FAFO Florida Agency for
Fiscal Oversight audits across the state.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We have audited and done spending calculations for ten local
government budgets and so far we have exposed over one
point five billion dollars with the BEE in excessive wasteful spending.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And do be us honors for Palm Beach County as
we are joined by CFO and Fire Marshall. Blazing Golia,
thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
First of all, of course, good morning, this.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is it is a good morning, but this is not
good news for Florida taxpayers. Give give us the give
us the bullet points here.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah. Sure. So yesterday we were in Palm Beach County.
We did a spending analysis, a FAFO audit of pom
Beach County found that they have overspent and overtaxed their
citizens citution are three four million dollars just last year alone.
That is a number. That is the largest number that
we have found so far. The previous honors, dubious honors
(01:10):
went to Miami Dade when we found three hundred and
two million, palm beaches at three hundred and forty four million,
which brings the grand total of wasteful and excessive spending
that we have founded eleven governments so far to just
under one point nine billion dollars. The key takeaways here
is that government is taking the extra property tax revenue,
expanding governments, spending money on things that they shouldn't be
(01:33):
spending it on, and expanding programs that it should have
never been there in the first place. Taxpayers deserve better.
I'm going to continue being a taxpayer advocate for them,
and we're going to call out this success.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And this is all focused on bringing property taxually for
Florida homeowners. I just I want you to play a
twenty second SoundBite from you yesterday. I think this really
hits home.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Governments keep on talking about affordable housing, affordable housing. They
want to appropriate more money for affordable housing.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
They want to go and get grants from.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
The federal government for affordable housing. They want to go
get appropriations from the state for affordable housing. You know,
it's the easiest way to give people a more affordable home.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is cut their property taxes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
But that involves cutting their budgets which are not interested in.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, I thought that really hit home yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, I couldn't hear the audio, but yes, this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Is oh you were talking about. You were talking about
affordable housing and local governments talk about how important it
is and how they have to borrow money and take grants,
and the simplest way you said is just to bring
the tax relief.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Everyone running for office is running on a platform or
bringing affordable housing, and their idea of affordable housing is
to create more government programs. And government programs do nothing
in the long term but exacerbate the housing issue. So
the easiest way they can do it is just cut
their property taxes. But they refuse to do it. They
won't do it. They're unwilling to do it because that
(02:55):
means to cut their own budgets.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The other thing I guess part of the this was that,
you know, the exponential rise in this wasteful spending came
about while the county only grew what I think you
noted eighty thousand and eighty Yeah, in popularity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That's how you can really put that in context and
understand that what we're saying is accurate and it's true.
So Palm Beach County had a growth of population a
little over eighty thousand, but their budget grew over the left.
So over the last five years, the county grew about
eighty thousand people, but their budget grew almost nine hundred
(03:34):
million dollars. So how can you justify that huge increase
in budget to deliver services, additional services to eighty thousand people.
That just doesn't make any sense. It's nonsensical. In fact,
when you do the math, every family of four that
moved into Palm Beach County, Palm Beach County's budget increased
by almost forty thousand dollars. That just doesn't make any sense.
(03:58):
You can actually make the argument as as populations grow
that the cost for person should be going down, not
exponentially up like we'll seeing in Palm Beach County.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This wasteful spending. And I know you've mentioned before that
the doge the governor has more control over announcing kind
of the doze stuff, the specifics, but any way of
knowing from you how much of this wasteful spending was
on DEI.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
There's a big amount on DEI and that. But look,
what people need to understand is that the wasteful and
excessive spending that we are highlighting. Most of that is
in personnel. That is the growth of government itself. This
means that they are adding full time equivalents, they're adding
they're adding people, they're adding employees, they are giving employees raises,
(04:52):
and that's why they don't want to cut because they
just fired these people, never needing them in the first place.
So I would say a good eighty percent of what
you're seeing and waste and excesses the growth of government itself. Now,
local governments are going to say, hey, point to a
specific line item, but that's not what this exercise is about.
What this exercise is about how much government has grown
(05:15):
over inflation and population. Other states like Colorado actually have
a constitutional amendment that says that government can't grow and
you cannot spend over what inflation and population allows. So
we're using that same metric and we're showing that counties
like tom Beach County are blowing them out of the water.
Now I will say this is that I know that
(05:35):
there is new leadership in tom Beach County and they
seem very eager to bring down the costs and offer
property tax relief. So I'm a little hopeful, but government
is government. Government is always going to do what government does,
and that is grow and waste tax payer money and
ask for more money. So I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Be watching now, I know really, and I want to
get to your legislative priority for the fight illegal immigration,
and but I just wanted to You had mentioned how
local governments will say, well, if we could, I mean,
it's going to hurt law enforcement and fire and we
do have the PbSO budget pretty high because it's a
huge agency. But I wanted you to speak to that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, So what's funny about this is then you're right.
Local governments will say that the sheriff's budget takes a
huge part of the budget. But we analyze pbso's budget
compared to the general fun budget of the county because
that's part of it. And actually the sheriff's budget actually
went down in dollars, so we can actually prove empirically
(06:37):
that the sheriff is actually being much more fiscally conservative
than what the county is. In fact, if you pull
the sheriff's budget out, the numbers for the county actually
get worse. So PbSO is actually doing a very good
job with keeping government constrained.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right. This week you announced your list of legislative
priorities to discourage legal immigrants from coming to some of
the things that you talk about wanting to, you know,
keep illegals from getting like downtown payment assistance on a mortgage,
commercial driver's license. Yeah, I would have sworn, and I
think most people listening would that we already don't allow that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We don't. We don't allow down payment assistance. But there
are companies out there, nonprofits that continue to market to
illegal immigrants in the state of Florida saying that they
can offer down payment assistance. But here my concern for
down payment specifically is that you have a lot of
states that do that. I never ever wanted Florida to
do that in the future. So I want it in
(07:38):
the law now because I do not know what the
state of Florida is going to look like twenty years
from now. Yes, we have conservative leadership right now, but
you never know if it's going to turn I want
it on the books now in law saying that that
is prohibited.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So this is something that you're introducing for lawmakers legislators
in January to start working on correct.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
But there's also a lot of other big proponents. You know,
other states, a driver's license and auto insurance companies actually
give them auto insurance and they drive on Florida's roads.
And if you get into an accident with an illegal immigrant,
I think that the illegal immigrant should be automatically at
fault and near insurance companies should pay because they shouldn't
be on the road in the first place.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
All right, Well, we will make sure that folks know
about this. I know there's several prongs to this. We
just don't have time to get into all of us.
You could join us again over the season if you like.
We'd be happy to have you. State, CFO, Blaze, and Goolia.
Thank you once again for coming on with us.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Of course, take care of merk Christmas everyone,
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