Florida CFO race centers on $1 billion immigration spend

Florida has spent more than $1 billion on immigration enforcement as it cooperates with the federal crackdown. That figure is now a central point of contention between Republican incumbent Blaise Ingoglia and Democrat Annette Taddeo in the race for Chief Financial Officer.

Ingoglia, who took office in July 2025 after Jimmy Patronis resigned to run for Congress, told The Florida Roundup that the spending was necessary to handle what he described as a flood of illegal immigrants. He said the money helped with the removal process but argued that a different allocation would have been more efficient.

"I would have much rather we have taken the extra dollars and repurposed it for making a lot of sheriff's detention centers and jails across the state 287(g) compliant and repurposed that money," Ingoglia said. He referred to the 287(g) agreement as a way for local law enforcement to work directly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ingoglia also defended the audit methodology of the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, known as FAFO. His office recently determined that Broward County overspent by nearly $190 million. The audit calculates a baseline by indexing the general fund to population growth and inflation over five years. Any budget amount above that baseline is labeled wasteful spending.

Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller rejected the findings, calling the numbers fictitious, made-up, phony, and false. Ingoglia dismissed the criticism, noting that other states have constitutional provisions preventing government growth from outpacing inflation and population.

On property insurance, Ingoglia said he has fined insurers $2.4 million for bad practices and has sued two companies since taking office. He said the state must keep existing reforms in place while holding insurers accountable for how they manage premiums.

Taddeo, a former state senator, is running on a platform that includes creating a report card for insurance companies. The system would track claim response times, denial rates, and financial soundness to force greater transparency. She argued that insurers should have to justify rate increases with real data rather than vague claims.

"I think we need to see everything. We need them to show us the case to raise the rates," Taddeo said. She also supports a moratorium on AI data centers, though she acknowledged that the CFO office has limited power to stop construction once it begins.