Florida's DOGE spending probe is coming for Miami-Dade County

MIAMI — As Miami-Dade’s Democratic mayor proposes closing a $402 million budget deficit with a mix of service cuts and fee increases, Florida’s Republican governor would like a word.

The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis this week warned Miami-Dade to expect a site visit from the state’s “DOGE” team that is reviewing local spending decisions and priorities. In a letter that singled out green-energy efforts and the county’s spending to encourage racial diversity in hiring and contracting, state administrators said they were concerned that Miami-Dade is facing budget strain after years of growth in property-tax revenue.

“Particularly in light of these increases in revenue, we are concerned about the $400M+ budget gap that you have announced,” read the Monday letter to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava from two DeSantis aides and Blaise Ingoglia, the independent chief financial officer appointed by the governor last month.

This wasn’t Miami-Dade’s first contact with the state DOGE team, which is named after the spending-cut operation Elon Musk launched in the early days of the second Trump administration, the “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative. The correspondence Levine Cava’s office released on Tuesday shows her administration has already responded to past DOGE requests with information on contracts, employee compensation and tax-revenue collections.

Levine Cava released a statement Tuesday responding to the letter, noting that property-tax rates dropped 2% since she took office in 2020 and that Miami-Dade faces regular audits already. But she said her administration welcomes transparency and will cooperate with DOGE — “to the extent that the review adds value without disrupting local governance.”

“If DOGE requires clarification on budget line items we have already clearly documented, we will help,” the statement read. “But there is no need for duplication, nor for politically driven investigations that could divert staff time away from critical services.”

In the Monday letter, the DOGE team asked for more information on salaries, county leases and real estate sales. The letter also singled out county programs related to “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” — an umbrella term for programs and policies that generally seek to boost hiring or economic opportunities for minority groups. Shortly after winning her first term in 2020, Levine Cava opened the county’s first Office of Equity.

The letter also asks for documentation of county spending under the heading of the “Green New Deal” — shorthand for federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and promote adoption of electric power over gasoline. That’s sure to touch on a black eye for Miami-Dade’s transit system, which a year before Levine Cava took office purchased a fleet of electric buses that ended up suffering severe mechanical problems.

Florida’s DOGE team also appears to be scrutinizing traffic circles and speed bumps. One passage of the letter demands information on all “traffic calming devices” the county installed since the end of 2022.

Miami-Dade has until Aug. 13 to provide the requested documents or could face fines, according to the letter.

The scrutiny by the DeSantis administration on Miami-Dade spending comes at an unwelcome time for Levine Cava. At recent budget town halls, she’s been defending her plan to close the $402 million gap while keeping property-tax rates flat with a mix of cuts to park services, elder-care programs and charity grants, plus increased transit fares, parking fees at county parks and boosting the county’s per-gallon gas tax from 3 cents to 5 cents.

At those meetings, Levine Cava has also urged attendees to advocate for her proposed flat tax rates and predicted that county commissioners will push to lower the rates. Levine Cava’s 2022 and 2023 budgets included 1% reductions in the property-tax rate, but she proposed flat rates in the last two years as the budget picture worsened.

Lowering the tax rate in 2026 “would force us to go back and cut more services,” she told a Saturday audience at the North Dade Regional Library in Miami Gardens.

The latest Florida DOGE letter to Miami-Dade followed a visit last week to Ingoglia’s office by Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, one of six Republicans on the 13-member County Commission and its most vocal DeSantis supporter.

Gonzalez, who is calling for a property-tax rate cut in 2026, posted a video Monday from his visit with DOGE representatives, saying, “It’s time to ensure all County resources serve our taxpayers best.” After news broke of the latest DOGE letter, Levine Cava’s Republican predecessor, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, praised the state probe in a post that only used the mayor’s maiden name. “In just a few years, Mayor Levine has turned our good stewardship into a massive deficit,” the post read.

In her statement responding to the latest DOGE letter, Levine Cava said: “Our priorities remain focused on delivering for residents: investing in infrastructure, public safety, affordable housing, and economic opportunity—not playing into staged political theater.”