- today
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) holds a press briefing to tout the results of Florida's DOGE efforts in Broward County.
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00:00who's uh hitting the ground running and um and and I know that there's a lot that he's got on his
00:09plate and we previewed a little bit of that yesterday when he did his official swearing in
00:13but one of the things that we've worked hard on uh this year has been this idea of doging all
00:21areas of government and that obviously started with the trump administration the president
00:26Elon Musk and that and really looking at the federal government obviously we know there's a
00:31lot of problems uh with how the federal government um operates but we looked in Florida and said
00:37you know even though we have the second lowest spending per capita in the country um even though
00:44we've uh paid down record amounts of of outstanding state debt just since I've been governor even
00:50though we're cutting taxes we're doing all this we have the lowest number of of state workers per
00:55capita of any state in the country uh we want to look at ourselves at the state level and
01:00particularly at our universities and so we did an executive order uh ordering all the agency heads
01:07to start using some of this artificial intelligence because they're already doing they're supposed to
01:12do reviews of what's going on contracts all this stuff but let's harness artificial intelligence some
01:17of these things to look at our own agencies but then also uh at these universities and you know
01:23universities get a lot of money uh they um I think there was all there was a view of universities
01:28that somehow they're entitled to just do what they want um and I've said no actually the taxpayers
01:35fund your universities and so you got to pursue a mission that's consistent uh with the goals of the
01:40state of Florida and so we've done things like eliminate DE&I we've done things that are trying to focus the
01:46universities on their core mission so there's mission creep there and then we're going through all that but then we also
01:52said we need to look at state and local governments now we didn't I didn't have authority per se to just
01:59demand everything I do have some constitutional authority that we exercised uh but we also work
02:04with the legislature uh to get some concrete doge authority for the state of Florida vis-a-vis state and local
02:13governmental entities and then the chief financial officer uh has long-standing authority uh to to conduct
02:20oversight and audits of government institutions that receive state funding which is almost basically
02:27every uh institution in Florida receives some form of state funding so we are uh pleased to really get
02:35the ground running now I mean the budget was signed at the end of June took effect July 1st we've been
02:40doing some planning on this obviously Blaze uh was I was I put Blaze in to be the CFO uh because there was a
02:48vacancy there um and so now um it's off to the races now um we you know I think there's problems uh in in
02:56local governments some local governments have done a good job I mean I think we have a big diverse state
03:02um and it's not necessarily like this part of the state is all bad this part of the state's all good it's
03:07really a mix and um I've had a lot of complaints uh from folks down here in South Florida uh vis-a-vis some of
03:14the governments but we've also had complaints in northwest Florida and in other parts um and so
03:21it's important to just put all this in perspective but I will say this if you look at the state of
03:25Florida um you go back 15 years uh the average Floridian uh was $1,200 per if you if you took the
03:36state debt you would be about $1,200 that you would owe as a Floridian uh we've now driven that down to
03:42under $500 per Floridian so the total state debt of all of Florida's history if they somehow just
03:48said you got to write a check we got to pay it off tomorrow you you'd pay somewhere around $400
03:54now if they told you from the federal government and they told you you had to write a check for your
03:59share of the federal debt as an American citizen you'd have to write a check for like $106,000 and so
04:05it's way different uh our debt is declining um the budget I signed and I did do I did about $600
04:13million in line item vetoes to get it in line with my proposed spending levels from my governor's recs
04:19but we spent less last fiscal year than the year before and we're spending less this fiscal year
04:25than we did in the fiscal year that just elapsed at the end of June there's not a lot of states that
04:31can say that that they're actually doing that obviously the federal government hasn't hasn't cut
04:35spending so it's um it is we're in a good position as a state uh but we always want to do better so
04:42we've started with with state and we're going to continue to do that but we also now have the ability
04:48to bring this into the state and local level and so I did do an executive order uh with the authority
04:55that we had there were some things that people had to do there was some stuff before the legislature
05:00acted that was more voluntary some local governments took us up on that offer other local governments
05:07did not take us up on that offer as you might imagine and so there was a disagreement amongst
05:12some you had some commissions would would vote and it'd be a divided vote and sometimes they would
05:17comply sometimes uh they wouldn't you know my view would be you should be proud of what you're doing
05:23and proud of of your budgeting and your spending that you should welcome this stuff to be able to
05:28trumpet that to your constituency but that wasn't true for everybody um and so you know we are here
05:34today with our our new cfo blaze angolia that um we are going to start doing uh on-site uh doge
05:44inspections and audits of local and munis of county and municipal governments so beginning on july 31st
05:52our teams are composed of auditors and other skilled staff that are drawn from various state agencies
05:57they will be using the authority that i mentioned to conduct reviews of the data systems physical
06:03premises and personnel of counties and cities that have thus far refused to cooperate with us to
06:11identify and report on any excessive spending patterns and we'll be doing this through our new
06:16authority as i mentioned which includes granting access to spending records and will we be starting
06:22with those jurisdictions uh which have received a lot of complaints uh for their spending practices
06:29and so we're here in broward county and i think most people know there's some criticism of how the
06:35county government has operated and i think over the last five years uh taxpayers here in broward have
06:41watched uh their county government has increased property tax burdens by the tune of 450 million dollars
06:49in addition to ad valorem collections so that's an increase of close to 50 percent just since 2020.
06:56but yet the population of broward has barely grown at all less than five percent net since 2020.
07:05so why is the tax going up almost 50 percent while the population is going up less than five percent you
07:13know there are things that as population grows we've seen this in the state of florida
07:17uh more people pay sales tax you end up having higher receipts but uh that's because of economic
07:25growth and more population you haven't seen the population increase here now broward has also spent
07:32a lot of money on kind of pet causes whether it's de and i whether it's the green new deal they even did i
07:39think it was was it eight hundred thousand dollars for the rose bowl they did a float in the rose bowl
07:43um the county administrator here makes almost half a million dollars a year so there's a lot of things
07:51that really deserve scrutiny and here's the thing you know you're taxed just for living in your home
07:58as a florida resident and where is that money going to we always hear it's about schools and police
08:04well we all agree with that uh but what about this other spending um and why has that gone up so much
08:10uh when there hasn't been uh an obvious justification to be able to do it so we have the authority uh this
08:18is no longer optional we don't have to ask mother may i uh we can just simply say you must comply
08:25under the law of course there are supports supporting mechanisms built into the law for
08:31municipalities and counties that are non-compliant and then of course i have constitutional authority
08:37uh to ensure that folks are following the law so i look forward to these audits so we are announcing
08:44today you know broward county we've got another announcement later today uh in in gainesville but
08:50you are going to see a cadence of these put out uh very quickly uh over the next couple weeks and so
08:57it's not just going to be in one part of the state uh it's going to be across the board we have gotten a
09:03lot of valuable information from folks that voluntarily participated uh but i think that
09:07there's uh jurisdictions that didn't want to participate we understand that um but we also
09:13understand that that's not going to be acceptable for the taxpayers um here in the state of florida
09:18before i turn it over to blaze i just want to make a quick comment on you know the city of miami
09:25you know they had this they cooked up this scheme with i think three of the five commissioners
09:30that they would just cancel the election scheduled for this november uh extend their own terms in
09:36office which the voters had never approved that also violates term limits effectively um and that
09:42that was just something that was going to be all hunky-dory and i know a lot of people were concerned
09:47about it i raised concerns about it and said it was was bad the attorney general of florida said it was
09:53not legal what they were trying to do i know a lot of voters and residents down in south florida
09:59were not happy with seeing that and so yesterday there was a court ruling to say that no you can't
10:06cancel the election you can't extend your terms in office unless you get the approval of the voters
10:12and isn't that how it it should be i mean you as a voter go in to elect someone for a fixed term
10:17knowing you have another shot to to have new elections at a fixed time and that they can just
10:22decide you know we're just going to dispense with that and go that doesn't fly first of all it wasn't
10:27legal but even if somehow it was legal is there anyone that can make an argument with a straight
10:33face about why that would be something that would be acceptable to just thrust upon the voters without
10:39their consent of course not so we were very much pleased to see that court ruling i anticipated that
10:47court ruling because i think that what they were trying to do just ran afoul of not just the law but but
10:53basic common sense and principles of fairness and so i hope that they'll be able to conduct a free and
10:58fair election this november and if they want to change the dates of their election you go to the
11:04voters before you do that and you lay out a plan that you wanted in an even year uh you don't just say
11:11you know we're just going to stay in office a little bit longer um and regardless of what what the voters
11:16think so i appreciate those who were involved in in that litigation and i think it was the right
11:20decision okay you know we got our fearless fiscal warrior blaze angolia come on up
11:31thank you everyone thank you for being here uh this morning uh good morning and thank you governor for
11:36leading on this issue it's an important issue we got some feedback back there huh
11:42um so i want to um thank you uh there is a new era of accountability in the state of florida when it
11:51comes to uh fiscal spending i will tell you that i cut my teeth years ago calling out local wasteful
11:58spending what i've seen that local governments are usually have the most egregious patterns of spending
12:04uh money on stuff that quite frankly if the voters knew and we shone a light on it they would probably
12:11disagree with um broward county unfortunately is probably in my mind one of the worst offenders when
12:18it comes to spending and the reason being is that because the county is full there's a lot of people
12:23here so there's not much in terms of population growth one of the metrics we should use when it comes to
12:29spending is what was your budget before if you add inflation and population growth what should it be
12:36and then what is it actually depending upon your current budget well if you don't have population
12:42growth you can't use the argument that we have that many more people there's not that many
12:47developments being approved in the state of florida they're not adding that much more people
12:51so yes is there inflation yes but the amount of money that is being asked to the taxpayers in the
12:58state of in in broward on behalf of their local government is far outstripping in my opinion the
13:05residents and the taxpayers willingness and ability to pay they're putting a crunch one of the big
13:10issues that i am pushing for is affordability in housing um insurance and taxes taxes are one of the things
13:17that we can handle so if we can get government to reduce spending right size their spending by getting
13:23rid of waste fraud and abuse and quite frankly the things that you probably wouldn't approve of
13:28then we start off with the lower base number um the broward is taken in with very little
13:35population growth i think an extra half a billion dollars worth of property tax revenues that's a
13:40lot of money and we have to start asking ourselves and quite frankly we need to start asking local
13:45government where are you spending this money and then let the people know what they're spending the
13:50money on it then let the people make the decision that this is worthwhile from some of the stuff that we've
13:55seen like eight hundred thousand dollars on a float at the rose bowl parade probably not the best use
14:00of taxpayer money now that is tdt money i get it but it goes to show a bigger um that is just a symptom
14:08of excessive reckless spending where quite frankly they don't care i'm sorry to say this but a lot of local
14:14officials just don't care because they don't view it as as um as their own money you know they view it as
14:21somebody like this endless pot of money but you know what the taxpayer you guys are the endless pot
14:26of money um the power to tax citizenship is should not be taken lightly if you are in office and you
14:33are taxing you should be asking yourselves if this was my own personal money would i make the same
14:38investment would i spend the same thing i see a lot of people shaking their heads it's unfortunate but
14:44government um over the past 20 years all levels of government i would say that the state is a heck of a
14:49a lot better fiscally responsible more fiscally responsible than what we're seeing at the federal
14:53government and the local government but this is what this is what really gets my craw is how many
14:59times have you seen local governments sit there and cry poor and then all of a sudden they ask for
15:05more money in terms of an additional sales tax going on about it no this is the first part in
15:12accountability and and um transparency that we're bringing to local governments and saying that no
15:19we are tired of the reckless spending we are over um overspending and over taxation so going into the
15:25books through florida doge's effort through the cfo's office and having auditors go in and start
15:31questioning some of these things is the first step to bringing fiscal sanity back to local governments
15:37because quite frankly local governments have been running amok for way too long i look forward to
15:44working with this governor i look forward to working with florida doge's team to start bringing
15:50a light shining a light on some of this wasteful egregious spending i thank you for everything that
15:55you know that you have somebody in the cfo's office who's going to look out for your best interest
16:00the taxpayers interest governor i thank you for this leadership okay
16:03and i appreciate uh blaze uh you know taking this on you know one of the things that um that i did
16:13when i became governor was i i actually just studied all the constitutional statutory provisions that
16:20related to the executive's ability to um to move policy and there are certain things that are there that
16:28that you're entitled obviously to wield on behalf of the people that that sent you there
16:33and this authority in the cfo's office to to be in there and and and doing these audits i think
16:39is really important authority i think it's i think it's appropriate and i'm glad that blaze is uh really
16:44going head headstrong into uh to using this in a really really good way so this is just the start
16:50there's going to be more over the next particularly a couple weeks that we're going to do around the
16:56state i think you'll see counties but i also think you'll see cities and i think that there's going to be
17:01a lot of taxpayers that are going to be happy that this is being done and ultimately this is what it's
17:07about the people that pay the bills who work hard and you know have their money have their incomes or
17:12their property taxed to be able to support these services and while there's certain things that we
17:17all support um we know that some of this stuff uh has gone astray so let's let's let's show some uh
17:24show some accountability here yes sir yes governor chris nelson um with your history with brower county
17:30you know these guys are going to buck and this could be for you or for blaze what um enforcement
17:35mechanisms are you specifically willing to go to and will this cover things all the way back to the
17:42covid spending on the school board and stuff like that so there there is there is um mechanisms in
17:47the law to be able to hold accountable for non-compliance and and it's basically i mean you have certainly
17:53daily fines we would construe every individual request as a separate um active disobedience and so
18:02if we send one letter with 50 there's none of them are complied with that's 50 right and so those fines
18:08would multiply for one day and then continue going uh so i think that that's a pretty good disincentive
18:14they're also the law is clear i mean there's some people say well you know why would why would the
18:19state of florida care you know how the county and broward or the you know place at alachua or hillsborough
18:25or any of these places spend their money um and the reality is is the the folks you elected uh put this
18:31into law so so that's the law uh and if you don't like that then you can elect new people and try to
18:36change it in the future but but that's the law you don't have the uh you don't have the right to just
18:41pick and choose which laws that that you want to apply so we'll make sure that that's done um i know
18:48blaze will be a a a hawk on this uh we obviously will use our authority and then quite frankly you
18:54know i'm sure the attorney general will ensure that there's compliance so there's going to be
18:58compliance uh that's just the way the people have spoken on this you know we have the authority
19:02i was very public about asking for this and um and we got it done and so now we're going to do
19:07the people's business yes sir uh just can you break down broward county's millage rate has
19:13stayed flat for the last eight years um why is that not enough uh relief for taxpayers also you
19:20mentioned uh you know a small change in percentage of population growth but it is still it's like
19:25a hundred thousand somewhere in a hundred thousand people a year within the broward county so um a couple
19:30answers first i want to answer uh chris's question in terms of as a legislator i get appropriation
19:36requests all the time right now i get it from my counties where they say that i i previously
19:42represented pascal hernando citrus and sumter counties and now we get appropriation requests
19:46and asking for money the first thing i ask myself is do they need the money what is the money being
19:52expended for but i think the question we need to ask is the counties who are requesting the money
19:57actually spending the money that they have wisely and what will frustrate me is when i see a county
20:04egregiously spending not being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and then all of a sudden put in
20:10appropriation requests so to answer your question in terms of accountability i think that if a county
20:17municipality city any government entity is putting in a report appropriation request because they want
20:23more money and we have proven through florida doge efforts through the audits of the cfo's office
20:28that they are wasting the money that they have right now they shouldn't be allowed to ask for any
20:32more money we as a state should not give them an appropriation of 10 15 million dollars if a they're
20:38sitting on a bunch of money in their coffers right now when their uh investment funds in their reserves
20:43or if they've proven that they're not good stewards of the taxpayer money if you need money for something
20:49and you don't have money then that is a difference than if you have the money and you're wasting the
20:53money and then you're asking the money we're not going to pour good money after bad and to your point
20:59about the millage rate millage rate theoretically should be going down in those issues not remaining
21:04flat remaining flat with the increase in the property taxes yields a lot more money 450 million
21:12dollars almost a half a billion dollars more if you look at some of the places in the state that have the
21:17highest property values and i'm thinking monroe county right now over the years they're the
21:23maximum allowed millage rate you can have per um per section in your your trim notices is 10 right
21:31i think there are some exceptions for small counties to pierce pierce that but if you're at 10 and
21:37property values go up if you want to keep the same revenue the millage rate should be going down
21:42not staying the same so when your county comes out and says well you know our millage rate to stay
21:49the same that's a tax increase in this in this uh scenario it's not a tax decrease it's not even taking
21:55in the same amount of revenue so revenue so millage rate should be going down it's not staying
22:01say stable and they should definitely not be going up well but i think the issue so the
22:06the issue is uh it's an unrealized gain property that's the problem that's why it's unjust quite
22:11frankly to have a homeowner who's you know working hard doing all this and you're still having to
22:17pony up money basically paying rent just to be on your property to the government that's not true
22:23homeownership and so it's an unrealized gain that's why they're taxing it so yes i if you if
22:29the tax rate was the same and you were only taxing realized gains then you could have a point but it's
22:35an unrealized gain so people's values are going up partially because housing's gone up across the
22:41country but even more so in florida because there's been demand to come here uh and so people are paying
22:46more even homesteaded properties are paying more and then heaven forbid you you know you have a young
22:52family you grow out of a house you want to buy then you're at a much higher uh cost basis right there
22:58and you're paying paying a lot more so they're taxing unrealized gains and so if you're taxing
23:02unrealized gains to say you're keeping the millage rate the same you're taxing higher values people are
23:09having to pay more but they've never sold the home at that point this is just paper value and it's
23:16interesting how often are they aggressive to assess your property value lower no that's not what they do yes
23:24yes in regards to the city of miami ruling yesterday would you like to personally see
23:29those elected officials held accountable and then secondly uh wouldn't we announce uh when we expect
23:35the governor announcement jay collins perhaps so um i told people i would deal with these appointments
23:40after the legislative session obviously went till the end of june uh so we we were able to do the cfo
23:46so so the lg were working on you know i just got to vet people right and there's different folks that
23:51that wanted or this and so so it'll be soon uh but it's not necessarily going to be um you know
23:56today or tomorrow now look on the city of miami now some people ask me you know would could you remove
24:02the commissioners and actually the way florida law is you know governor has way more authority over county
24:09elected officials than municipal so the municipal really there needs to be a criminal uh pretext for
24:16for the governor to exercise the suspension authority there now why they did this was there
24:22something behind the scene i don't know i mean obviously it's a shady thing right um but i think
24:28probably the best way to to do it in the short term is we got an election coming up in november
24:33and i think the voters of miami and the interesting you know this is an issue that spans party democrats
24:38and republicans you know that i've seen all thought that this was a bad idea the voters i know some
24:44entrenched politicians thought it was a good idea but this was a bad idea and so i think the city is
24:50going to have an opportunity to elect a reform uh a reform mayor uh and some some of these commissioners
24:57that's probably the best way in the immediate um aftermath now on county stuff you know like on
25:03the immigration stuff i mean you know if you have duties under the law if you're neglecting those duties
25:09then the governor does have the authority to suspend under those circumstances so yes sir thanks i
25:15appreciate it with respect to municipalities that are not in compliance is this sanction withholding
25:20state funding and appropriations is that about the only sanction or fines so the um where's my
25:26where's erica i'm sorry my other question was we have the fines or how much a day a thousand dollars
25:33uh for each line item so you know so for example if we send a letter to a city and say you know
25:41provide us information on these hundred things and they they don't do it then then each individual
25:47item would be a daily fine of a thousand so that'd be a hundred thousand a day for a hundred items
25:52and that obviously multiplies very quickly yes the appropriations process i think it's a separate one
25:57i think blaze makes a great point his authority obviously is triggered by the receipt of state
26:02funds and so if you have a county that doesn't receive any state funds which i don't think any
26:06county in florida receives no state funds then you would be immune from the cfo's oversight so so i
26:12think that's going to be both and then i think clearly if it came to something where you just had
26:19a neglect of obvious duties in some of these positions to the extent governor's constitutional
26:25authority is implicated you would have the ability to do that so so i'm confident that the
26:29enforcement is going to be adequate uh and here's the thing you know people say oh you know fine just
26:35just comply we'll do it i would love for some of the areas where people have told us hey you got
26:41to audit here i would love for those to come back but passing with flying colors i mean that'd be good
26:46for taxpayers if that happened um right exactly yeah i think so you know lawyers are not able to
26:57see their clients out there what do you think being a lawyer yourself and a jag lawyer well i i first
27:02of all i i don't know here's what i i think is happening you have some of these a lot of these are
27:08criminal aliens and they will make claims and then the media is kind of running with it uh i know that the dhs
27:16anticipated that there would be legal um involvement and i know they even have a place where people can
27:23like read books about this stuff um so that was all being kind of now i haven't been down there since the
27:28president was there um i may go back down very soon uh but uh it's it's odd that they're going in there
27:35i mean you have these these uh these representatives i mean first of all like they're just trying to get
27:40they're trying to get some notoriety uh so they're making these claims and they're saying oh they're not
27:45they're not fed well well first of all they're fed the same that the staff is fed you know you go to
27:50like a and it's not a prison it's a deportation processing center so it is different but like in
27:55florida prisons do you think the prisoners get the same meals as the guards no of course not it's
28:01different this is everyone's the same there and they were mad that the ham sandwiches weren't toasted
28:08excuse me i mean give me a break so uh dhs you know required there to be certain things i know the
28:18the legal was uh was a part of that um there is recreation people say there's not and there is
28:23people will show so uh i'm confident that whatever is required uh will will be satisfied um i know that
28:30there's an effort to try to you know put whatever narratives out there that you can but but i'm
28:35confident that they'll get the job done but here's the thing ultimately the goal is you need a place
28:41that you can process and deport efficiently uh if you want to be able to remove illegal aliens from
28:48the country particularly the criminal aliens who shouldn't be um anywhere in our communities
28:53that needs to have some uh infrastructure to go with it dhs does not have enough spaces to be able to
29:01do it so we're running into situations florida's aggressive our state and local are required to
29:05participate so like our highway patrol you know they may bust some van and there may be like 10
29:10illegals like in a van they can bring to ice but if ice doesn't have room for them then ice basically
29:16just either has to release them or hope that you can put somebody in a state um a county or a city
29:22facility and and you can do that at some point but we don't have the space there so that's why they're
29:27doing it i think dhs is going to ramp up its space uh which will be very helpful for this and so there's
29:33a lot of logistics there's a lot of i mean people say there's no due actually there's a lot of due
29:38process that's why it takes this way i mean my view would just be it's like okay are you here do you
29:43have a right to be here show us okay let's look at this we think not and then just make a quick decision
29:49and and obviously if someone has a right then to be then they shouldn't be involved in in any of this
29:54stuff i would also note this when you go into alligator alcatraz as an illegal the first thing
30:02dhs does is they give you a brochure and they tell you you don't have to come here you can get uh at
30:10federal expense all expenses paid flight back to your home country no questions asked now obviously
30:17they'll escort you to make sure you're getting on the plane they check to make sure you land but they
30:21are offering that for every single one of these folks um who end up being brought there so they
30:27nobody has to to go there if they don't want they do have the ability to take the the dhs up on their
30:33offer and and go back to their home country i don't see that mentioned as much but that is definitely
30:39part of it and it makes sense financially because whatever the cost of the ticket is is going to be
30:43less than going through a more lengthy process and then end up flying people out um at like a military
30:50or dhs aircraft so yes sir back to the audit really fast you mentioned that you're starting
30:55with the counties that haven't voluntarily agreed to be part of the auditing do you know off top of
30:59your head where the other south Florida counties stand Miami-Dade Monroe so um Miami-Dade we have had
31:07some cooperation i guess you'd say some cooperation with i know we work with one of the commissioners
31:12eric would that be i don't think they fully got on board but but we do have some of the commissioners are
31:17helping on that so i would say that they've been um better than some but not good enough and so
31:24i think it's very possible that you see an announcement on Miami-Dade uh within the next
31:29couple weeks i think it's also uh possible that you could see an announcement on on Palm Beach and
31:34then there's also municipalities in south Florida as well uh we are um we're going to do another
31:41announcement later today and then through the balance of this week and next there'll be more uh that are
31:46going to be doing but i think it's going to be you know certainly going to be you know probably 10
31:50to 15 uh counties municipalities split that are going to get the the on-site doge inspections
32:01well so it's interesting i guess they they did submit something late yesterday correct
32:05they responded to our most recent information they have not passed the resolution uh uh announcing
32:13that they are a cooperating jurisdiction or a resolution of support for the doge effort as over 75
32:21other jurisdictions across the state so eric soskin is our uh doge head for the the state uh governor's
32:28office and so he's there so so you so they so yeah they haven't done you know the compliance that we
32:33obviously uh hope for they did submit an answer i think close of business yesterday um on that now
32:39we had already decided that this was going to be something you know that we were going to do um going
32:43forward so there's a lot of complaints into how broward county is spending do you know who those
32:49complaints are from how many taxpayers yeah i mean i think taxpayers when uh we started announcing doge
32:55uh we got a lot of incoming on you know a handful i mean i'd say broward was one people talked about
33:01i'd say gainesville and malachua were big big i would say hillsboro i would say manatee i would say
33:09there's some northeast florida so and then there's some some agencies within county governments in
33:16particular there's a couple sheriff's departments across the across the state that people have had
33:22concerns about and then it's also just you know we're looking at you know you've had basically modest
33:27population but but big increases in in spending and that's the thing you do have to look at population
33:34growth and the fact that we did have inflation so it's like if you look at the state of florida
33:39if you go back to 2019 pre-covid you know we were spending in the night between 90 and 100 billion
33:44dollars for our state budget the budget i just signed although it's been a reduction two years in a
33:50row was i think about 117 billion all in when you include everything uh now if you adjust for the
33:57population growth we've had which has been significant and inflation that's definitely not
34:01a net a net spending increase given that because inflation has been 20 25 percent uh since since covid
34:08in our population we went from when i got elected governor i think we were 21 and a half million
34:13you know we're probably about we're close to 23 and a half million now i mean so we've had a net
34:18increase in population of 1.5 to 2 million residents and so when you account for that and so and how
34:24does that matter it's like so with with roads you know i've had to put more money into roads uh and and
34:31do that to accelerate because you know we have growth and you have traffic problems it's harder in south
34:36florida because so much is built out some of the most of the other parts of the state you have an ability
34:41to do some things widen lanes do things that will relieve so if you look like what we've done on i4
34:47the i4 project in orlando until about you get to disney that's made a big difference now we've done
34:53a temporary lane from disney into polk county that's increased the flow dramatically that's going to be
34:59a permanent fix we're going to have lane exposure so like we we have to do those things we have to
35:04build new schools right when um when when the population warrants it and you have too many in one
35:10you gotta you gotta do that so those are things that just kind of happen but i think what the state of
35:14florida has done a good job of doing is um not saddling taxpayers with uh recurring ballooning
35:21expenses uh move florida forward was like you know one shot we did a seven eight billion dollar infusion
35:28um and and we're gonna it's gonna make a huge difference and then we'll move on um if you look
35:33at some of the things we've done in an environment i just announced a big agreement with the army corps
35:39they're going to delegate us authority to move some of these uh uh everglades uh projects faster
35:45that the federal government was responsible for and we can do it faster so we're now going to do it
35:49uh that that whole um enterprise south of lake okeechobee is going to be done five years
35:54where it was currently scheduled and so that's a huge thing but you know my goal is is you know i we
35:59we opened the c43 reservoir on the east on the western side of lake okeechobee uh we put a lot of money into
36:06that that's good and there's obviously upkeep but when you get the infrastructure in place you do the
36:10water flow you will have you will be able to spend less in the future i really believe that so these
36:15are things that just uh you go but i'd say from the state's perspective we always want to do better
36:20but um i don't think there's any state in the country that can say they've they've cut spending
36:24on net um the last three years which is what which is what we've done and so i think that that's a good
36:29thing so all right i think i i think that's all fair game uh i think when you're talking about
36:39a property tax revenue uh where does that go i mean the thing that people say is that that's the
36:45schools and the law enforcement um and and i think i've been a big supporter of law enforcement obviously
36:52and i think that you know we have the best sheriffs in the country in the state of florida
36:56uh but i would not say all 67 departments you know are run great i would say most of them are
37:02are run well um but i would say that there are some that they need to be looked at and i think this
37:06could be one here uh and i also think there's a couple others that have been brought to mind about
37:10where you would look to do so stay tuned on all that all right we'll be back soon guys thank you