Florida DOGE Aims to Shrink State Spending

TALLAHASSEE, FL - On February 25, 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida would create its own Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force in an effort to eliminate fiscal waste within local and state governments, save money for taxpayers, and ensure government accountability. The task force was put into motion by a corresponding executive order, which will expire March 31, 2026.

The creation of a Florida DOGE task force continues the governor’s efforts to trim government spending within the state. Florida currently has the lowest number of government workers per capita compared to other states.

“Florida has set the standard for fiscally conservative governance, and our new Florida DOGE task force will do even more to serve the people of Florida,” DeSantis said in a press conference, “It will eliminate redundant boards and commissions, review state university and college operations and spending, utilize artificial intelligence to further examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste, and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat.”

An Executive Office of the Governor (EOG) DOGE team will be formed within the Office of Policy and Budget. This team will use publicly available information to report unnecessary spending in local governments. It will collaborate with state education boards to find and remove programs, staff, and courses deemed inefficient at Florida colleges. 

A DOGE team will be established in each state agency and will use new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to identify and eliminate unnecessary spending, as well as policies inconsistent with state laws. Members of the DOGE teams will serve one-year terms.

Each agency DOGE team will report findings and progress to the EOG DOGE team on a monthly basis. They will also recommend legislative reforms that could further reduce spending or maximize productivity. These recommendations must be made to the governor, chief financial officer, president of the Senate, and speaker of the House by September 30.

As part of the governor’s efforts to maximize government efficiency, the DeSantis administration’s proposed 2025-2026 budget plans to save $3 billion for Florida taxpayers by eliminating over 740 state government positions, urging $2.2 billion in tax relief, and reviewing federal grant funding received in the state. 

One of the goals of the Florida DOGE is to return surplus federal funding to taxpayers. Federal dollars unused or deemed unnecessary by the task force will be returned, according to the administration.

The DeSantis administration plans to abolish 70 boards and commissions this year as part of its mission to eliminate bureaucracy.

On Wednesday, March 26, DeSantis appeared at a Florida Board of Governors meeting held at Florida A&M University, further explaining his plan to apply DOGE to higher education.

“I think we’re going to find a lot of successes and room for improvement, but we want to be able to do that in the universities as well, and I know a lot of universities are welcoming this," DeSantis said.

The governor emphasized his order for Florida public colleges to be audited to ensure fiscal efficiency. He also reiterated his goal of removing ideological-oriented studies from campuses, specifically non-compliance with state bans of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. 

“But as we’ve seen, you know, you kind of burrow in and rename, do what you want,” DeSantis said. “And there is some sense in some quarters that whatever the law in the state of Florida is, it just is not obligatory on them and they can kind of do their own little fiefdom. That’s not going to fly here.”

In order to identify unnecessary spending, the EOG DOGE team has sent letters to all 411 municipalities, 67 counties, and 12 member universities of the State University System of Florida (SUS). 

Specifically, the EOG DOGE team is asking municipalities and counties to report instances of financial distress, such as failure to pay loans, failure to transfer taxes, social security contributions, or retirement contributions, or a total fund balance deficit.  

University presidents were sent a letter requesting information regarding institutional budgets, staffing budgets, functions of administrative offices, facility usage reports, course codes and descriptions, syllabi, details of all centers established on campus, and the dissolution of DEI programs.

The letters sent by the EOG DOGE team will be used to identify wasteful spending and propose policies for more conservative fiscal policies.