On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia held a press event at Jacksonville International Airport mocking city and county leaders. We learned that the former chair of the Republican Party of Florida doesn’t have much future in comedy or literature.
- The calls for dialing back political rhetoric and for more civil discourse in the wake of the shooting of Charlie Kirk were not heeded by DeSantis and Ingoglia—but who really thought they would?
Attacking the Jacksonville Mayor
The event aimed to promote DeSantis’s effort to eliminate property taxes on homestead properties and tout the Florida Department of Government Efficiency’s audits of municipal governments. Next to the podium stood a life-size screen displaying a holographic image of Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan running in a continuous loop.
- “There she is, Ms. Donna Deagan,” said Ingoglia, pointing to the hologram that greets arriving passengers at the airport. “It’s kind of funny because Donna Deagan, Mayor Deagan, said that this was not an example of wasteful spending.”
He continued, “This is $75,000 that could have gone out to law enforcement raises, could have helped repave roads. There’s a lot of money that this money could have been used for. So it is very fitting that we are here today in the City of Jacksonville at the Jacksonville Airport, highlighting waste, fraud and abuse in front of a $75,000 Donna Deagan hologram.”
The CFO stated Mayor Deagan had been rumored to be creating her own TSA (Transportation Security Administration). He asked Gov. DeSantis to unveil a mock logo Ingoglia had designed for the event. TSA stood for “Taxes Squandered Again.”
- The governor gave all the credit to Ingoglia: “He’s very good. This is all his doing.”
The Poet of Mean
But DeSantis-Ingoglia’s stand-up routine wasn’t finished with Mayor Deagan. Ingoglia proudly read a poem:
“Roses are red,
violets are blue.
Our property taxes are high because of you.”
As awful as that joke landed, he followed with another called “The Mayor’s Purse:”
“Donna waves the ribbon.
The budget takes flight.
Millions are scattered, gone overnight.
A city still waiting for roads to be mended,
but checks keep on flowing quite never ended.
The people keep asking, where does it go?
The coffers run empty,
yet taxes still grow in the halls of the city.
One lesson is clear.
Wasteful spending echoes year after year. T
Thank you, Ms. Donna.”
DeSantis stood beside Ingoglia grinning as the CFO received a smattering of applause.
Ingoglia is a college dropout who moved to Florida and became a homebuilder. He worked his way up the Florida Republican leadership ladder, but he has no experience in municipal government or auditing.
Still, DeSantis chose him to be the state’s CFO and run his DOGE initiative, and we have gotten a sad version of a comic trying out his act in a Days Inn lounge.
- Instead of detailed reports with supporting documents, numbers are batted around with only Ingoglia’s word that the spending cited is excessive and wasteful. He provides no information about whether the voters wanted the projects.
Dig Deeper: Yesterday, we reported that Ingoglia insinuated that the “Welcome to Pensacola” was paid for with local tax dollars. The Florida Department of Transportation, under DeSantis, contributed the majority of the funding for the sign, $470,000, and ARPA funds covered the remaining costs. What other facts has he misrepresented?
More Bad Poetry
Ingoglia was so pleased with his poetry that he posted another X, attacking the Orlando Sentinel, which had problems with his audit figures, too:
“Oh Sentinel, noble in name, corrupt in deed,
A pamphlet of bias no one should read.
You dress up opinion and sell it as fact,
A carnival sideshow of leftist act.
Your “journalists” preach from their Twitter feeds,
Peddling outrage that nobody needs.
If irony paid, you’d all be in clover—
A rag so absurd it should fold twice over.”
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