DOGE audit makes Manatee County a test case for defying DeSantis and developers
By Ryan Ballogg and Carter Weinhofer, Bradenton Herald; and Josh Salman, Suncoast Searchlight
Manatee County voters snubbed Tallahassee last fall when they rejected Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked, pro-development commission candidates and instead elected a slate of grassroots Republicans who promised to rein in runaway growth.
True to their word, the new commissioners quickly moved to cap sprawl — vowing to raise impact fees on developers to pay for new infrastructure, pushing to restore wetland protections and halting some large-scale projects altogether.
But those steps have now put them on a collision course with the governor and the powerful real-estate industry closely aligned with his administration, which has pushed back at every turn.
In June, the governor vetoed the county's $4 million in state budget requests after a commissioner criticized Senate Bill 180, a controversial pro-developer state law. More recently, his administration warned of “inevitable consequences” if Manatee raised impact fees.
And in July, he and his chief financial officer announced the county would be the first Republican stronghold targeted for an aggressive review by Florida’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency — known as DOGE — a program DeSantis styled after the Elon Musk-backed federal initiative to slash “waste, fraud and abuse.”
The escalating fight has become one of the sharpest examples yet of DeSantis using state power to quash local control, even in GOP-dominated areas. Political experts say the timing and tenor of the moves leave little doubt that Manatee’s growth-curbing agenda triggered the response.
“It’s simple retribution,” said Martin Hyde, a former Republican congressional candidate who closely follows politics in the region. “The developers are very upset about losing their rubber-stamp status … DeSantis is sending down some kind of imperial threat.”
The governor’s DOGE team has insisted the audit is about accountability, not retaliation.
“Whether it is a Democrat majority county or a Republican majority county, I have issues with wasteful spending,” newly appointed Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia recently said at a news conference.
But interviews with more than a dozen officials and political observers by Suncoast Searchlight and the Bradenton Herald suggest many see the showdown as an unmistakable warning shot to other local governments considering similar defiance.
Experts warn that what happens in Manatee County could set the tone for how far DeSantis and his allies are willing to go to force local leaders into line.
“We should be very concerned about a chilling effect,” said Katie Belanger, senior consultant with the Local Solutions Support Center, a national nonprofit that focuses on the intersection of local and state governments. “This is the time local officials need to stand up and protect their authority and democracy.”
Does Manatee County need a DOGE audit?
Many Republicans said they support the idea of a DOGE audit, citing what they view as questionable spending — from costly feasibility studies to a $34 million administration building plan and a $13 million land purchase. But they argue similar examples could be found in almost any Florida county, calling the move against Manatee retaliation for resisting developers tied to the governor.
The governor’s office declined to comment on this story. A spokesperson referred reporters to comments DeSantis made when he announced the audit at a July 24 press conference. At that event, DeSantis pointed to a 14% population increase over six years but an 86% jump in property tax collections — a $213 million surge he said warranted scrutiny.
“There is some dissonance there,” he told the crowd, accusing the county of hoarding reserves instead of returning money to taxpayers.
Backing him was billionaire developer Pat Neal, whose subdivisions dominate Manatee’s landscape. While county commissioners said they were not invited to DeSantis’ DOGE announcement in Bradenton, Neal was there, along with other developer-aligned Republicans.
Neal said the state review would reveal overspending and blamed the board for not rolling back millage rates enough, even though commissioners have reduced the rate three times in five years.
“I believe that there will be very significant findings in the DOGE report,” Neal a statement provided to reporters. “I heard that they found quite a few interesting examples of how the expenditures had gotten out of hand.”
Others saw pure politics. Former Commissioner Joe McClash called the audit “a very political attack on local government,” arguing the county’s finances are already subject to public review.
“The false messages from Tallahassee about wasteful spending are just not accurate,” he said. “Anytime somebody tells you, ‘we’re going to do this to you,’ that’s extortion.”
How DOGE landed in Manatee County
The state’s audit of Manatee County formally began with a July 24 letter from the Florida Department of Government Efficiency. The sprawling document outlined over 60 specific requests on everything from personnel and expenditures to property acquisitions and high-profile projects, like the Gulf Islands Ferry service and the county’s purchase of Mixon Fruit Farms.
Landing after months of public sparring between county leaders and the governor, the letter signaled the start of an intensive review that would put nearly every corner of county government under Tallahassee’s microscope.
Less than two weeks later, a DOGE task force arrived in Bradenton for a two-day visit, combing through files and interviewing staff. Ingoglia said the state would have a report completed in about 60 days, a timetable that left county leaders bracing for what might come next.
Commissioners publicly welcomed the scrutiny, though some questioned its motives.
Commissioner George Kruse called the audit a “great opportunity” in a social media post the day it was announced but in an interview with reporters dismissed the governor’s rationale as “asinine.”
Manatee County’s population growth has exploded, he said, which naturally drove up property tax revenues. That rapid growth also requires matching investment in services.
“They want more libraries, pickleball, boat ramps. They need more roads to drive their cars on, and more soccer fields for the kids to play on the weekends,” he said. “So when you have more people move here, you need more services.”
Some also seemed to chafe at the scope of the inquiry — which extended down to requests for records of clothing and uniform purchases for county employees — and wondered whether the real purpose is less about fiscal oversight than about sending a political message.
“Could there be some political things behind it?” said Commissioner Carol Ann Felts. “Was it because DeSantis was running against Trump, and our board was rather pro-Trump? We did name a park after (DeSantis), so there’s that.”
Former Commissioner Betsy Benac was more direct, calling the audit part of a larger battle over development.
“Developers are going to fight as hard as they can against an increase in impact fees,” she said. “At the state level, they’re certainly trying to take over control of what local government does.”
From Washington playbook to Florida weapon
Florida’s DOGE program launched in February, borrowing its name and mission from the controversial federal program that has resulted in mass layoffs, domestic and foreign funding cuts and a glut of ongoing legal challenges.
Whereas the federal DOGE focused on U.S. agencies and programs, DeSantis’ version has trained its sights not on Tallahassee’s own bureaucracy but on local governments — in particular on Democratic strongholds like St. Petersburg, Orlando and Alachua and Broward counties.
That pattern made the decision to unleash DOGE on “ruby red” Manatee County – a GOP stronghold where Republicans occupy nearly all elected positions and maintain a roughly 2-1 voting advantage over Democrats – all the more striking. It sent a signal that even Republican-led communities are not immune if they stray from the governor’s pro-growth agenda.
The only other Republican areas targeted were Hillsborough County, which recently flipped red and still has a large Democratic contingent, and the city of Pensacola in Northwest Florida, where state GOP officials have clashed with DeSantis.
Aubrey Jewett, an associate professor and associate school director at the University of Central Florida, said the tone of some of the DOGE letters to counties was indicative of political retaliation.
“It doesn’t seem like these were just randomly drawn out of a hat,” Jewett said.
“It was pretty clear, based on some of the letters that were written to local governments, that the state had an agenda.”
Jewett pointed to Orange County’s letter as one that struck him as a “political attack.”
What’s happening in Manatee, said Belanger of the Local Solutions Support Center, reflects a broader strategy playing out in states nationwide, where governors have increasingly preempted local decisions on everything from criminal justice to health care and social policy.
The approach has even stirred infighting within the GOP, as grassroots Republicans clash with state leaders aligned with powerful business interests.
“This is not about partisanship,” Belanger said. “It’s about policies designed to enrich a select few.”
This story is a collaboration between Bradenton Herald and Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
