Citrus County among biggest spenders in the state, Ingoglia says

By John Labriola - Citrus County is one of the biggest spenders in the state and is overtaxing its citizens to the tune of over $39 million a year.

That's according to Florida's Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who held a press conference in Lecanto on Tuesday to share the bad news about the county's finances.

Ingoglia, who previously served as this area's state senator, has been presenting his findings on overspending by cities and counties across the state as the Florida Legislature gets ready to hold a special session next month to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to reduce or eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties. He has identified $2.02 billion in overspending by over 15 governments.

Ingoglia's methodology involves taking a local government's 2019-2020 general fund budget and indexing it for inflation and population growth to determine how much it should be spending. Anything above that, he says, is just wasteful and excessive spending.

Citrus County's $39 million in overspending means the county is overtaxing its residents by 2.23 mills, or $2.23 for every $1,000 of taxable value, which translates to over $650 a year in extra taxes for the owner of a home with a $300,000 taxable value.

"This is probably one of the highest that I have seen," Ingoglia said. "An amazing amount of tax relief could have, and in my opinion should have, been enjoyed by the people here in Citrus County. That is real money put back in the pockets and the wallets of the taxpayers."

In the last six years, Ingoglia said, Citrus County has added 278 full-time employees, of which only 64 were first responders, while the county's population has grown by just 15,000. 

"When local governments say they will have to cut fire and police, they are not being truthful with you," he said.

"We cannot continue along this path. I'll be damned if we turn this state into New York. Local governments are going to have to be fiscally responsible, and we are watching," he added.

Four of Citrus County's commissioners, who were not informed of Ingoglia's findings ahead of time, were at the press conference, including Diana Finegan and Rebecca Bays, both of whom are running for reelection in the Aug. 18 primary. 

At the end of Ingoglia's remarks, Finegan applauded but Bays did not. That figures, because Bays cast the deciding vote in 2023 for a whopping 18 percent tax increase, while Finegan has consistently tried to get the commission to cut taxes but has been outvoted.

Holli Herndon, who is running for county commission against Bays, was at the press conference but was noncommittal regarding Ingoglia's findings about the county's overspending. 

"It would be really great politically for me to just say let's cut this, let's cut that, but when we make decisions, we need to make sure we're making the right ones for the long term so you're not seeing any side effects that we weren't thinking about," Herndon said. "I'm not for or against something in particular. I want to make sure I'm surrounding myself with people that understand."