Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia announced St. Lucie County “overtaxed and overspent” residents by about $46 million last year alone during a Treasure Coast visit. The announcement came as part of his Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight team’s audit findings of local government spending across the state. Ingoglia’s FAFO team identified excessive spending patterns in 16 local governments totaling $2.1 billion in one year.

“Since 2019, the St. Lucie County general fund budget has increased in six years $123 million,” Ingoglia said. That represents a 76 percent increase over the six-year period. St. Lucie County has experienced rapid growth with over 72,000 people moving there in the past six years, making it one of the fastest growing counties in the state.

“Just because a county grows in population doesn’t mean the cost to deliver services per capita, per resident, per voter, per taxpayer should go up,” Ingoglia said. The county hired more than 200 full-time employees since 2019, but only 22 of them were sheriff’s deputies. Ingoglia characterized this hiring pattern as evidence of excessive spending that doesn’t align with essential public safety needs.

Palm Beach County topped the list of excessive spenders among the 16 audited local governments. “The grand winner, worst of them all so far, Palm Beach County with $344 million,” Ingoglia said. The CFO’s audit findings come as Florida faces broader housing affordability challenges, with Southwest Florida counties showing significant cost burdens for residents.

In Collier County, 54,275 households, representing 13% of the population, are cost-burdened and spend more than 30% of their gross monthly income on housing expenses. Of those, 26,756 are severely cost burdened and spend greater than 50% of their monthly income on housing. Lee County shows similar patterns with 106,468 cost-burdened households representing 12.4% of the population, with 50,965 severely cost burdened.

The affordable housing crisis affects households earning up to 80% of area median income. In Collier County, that threshold is less than $64,000 for a single person or $90,000 for a family of four. In Lee County, a single person making less than $57,450 or a family of four making less than $82,100 fall into the lower income range requiring affordable housing options.

“It’s just really simple math. It’s hard to do,” said Lisa Lefkow, chief executive officer of Collier County Habitat for Humanity. “The gap between housing costs and income continues to get wider.” Nationally, approximately 33% or 43.5 million of all U.S. households are housing cost-burdened, including 50.3% of renter households totaling 23.2 million and 24.3% of homeowners totaling 21 million.

Lee County is projected to be the nation’s only metro area where the typical home price will fall by double digits in 2026, down 10.2% year over year according to Realtor.com analysis. Both Collier and Lee counties received their worst-ever “hotness” rankings among 1,612 counties nationwide, with Collier at No. 1,277 and Lee at No. 1,320.

Rental markets show mixed signals with Naples apartment listing prices decreasing 11% from last year’s median of $3,600 to $3,200 in January. Fort Myers apartment listing prices fell 9% from last year’s median of $2,177 to $1,980 in December. Despite these decreases, rental costs remain prohibitive for many essential workers in the region.

Ingoglia expects a special session soon to address property tax relief, indicating local governments will face pressure to reduce spending. The CFO’s findings suggest taxpayers across Florida may see legislative action aimed at controlling local government budgets and providing property tax relief in the coming months.