Just days ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, both candidates for the role of Florida's Chief Financial Officer — Republican Blaise Ingoglia and Democrat Annette Taddeo — joined The Florida Roundup to make their pitch to voters.
Ingoglia, the incumbent, was appointed to the position of the state's top financial watchdog in July 2025 after then-CFO Jimmy Patronis resigned to run for congress.
He told The Florida Roundup the more than $1 billion spent on immigration enforcement in Florida — as part of the state's cooperation with the Trump administration's crackdown — could have been used more efficiently.
Many of those dollars went to standing up immigration detention facilities like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation Depot. Ingoglia says the state spent too much money, but that it was dealing with what he calls an emergency of " a flood of illegal immigrants coming over the border."
" The spending was to help the removal process of the illegal immigrants that had been let into this country," he said.
But he added some of it could have been used to help facilities comply with 287(g), the agreement law enforcement agencies across the country have entered into with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "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," he said.
Ingoglia's tenure has been marked by the widely publicized work of the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight or FAFO. Broward County was deemed to have nearly $190 million dollars of overspend by Ingoglia's audit.
A FAFO audit takes the general fund of a municipality from the 2019/2020 fiscal year and indexes its growth to population change and the rate of inflation for five years to arrive at a final number he says a city or county should be operating at. The difference between that number and the county's actual budget is counted as wasteful spending in a FAFO audit.
Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller said of the audit, "Check the numbers, because they are fictitious. Made-up. Phony. False." It's criticism that Ingoglia dismissed.
" A lot of people are saying that, 'Well, that's not a really good metric, inflation to population,' and I would say that's hogwash, because other states actually have it enshrined in their constitutions that say that government cannot grow faster than inflation to population, and if it does, you actually have to refund that money back," he said.
READ MORE: Ingoglia seeks ‘transparency’ on property insurance payments to affiliates
He also indicated that the work is separate from the efforts of the Florida Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
" You're talking about two separate exercises. What [DOGE] was looking for was specific line items within the budget which you can argue should not have been spent with taxpayer dollars... what my audits were proving were the outpacing and the growth of government itself, two separate things," he told TFR.
On property insurance, Ingoglia praised Florida's existing reforms and has made keeping them in place a cornerstone of his policy on reducing the cost of homeowners insurance. He also touted his record suing insurers for bad business practices.
"We have fined insurers $2.4 million for not doing what they were supposed to do. I have sued not one, but two insurance companies since I have been CFO for shady business practices. So we need to hold the insurers accountable and make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. But we have to keep the reforms in place," he said.
Ingoglia's opponent is former Democratic State Senator Anette Taddeo. She has consistently ran for office since 2008, only winning her State Senator seat in a special election in 2017 and reelection to that seat in 2018. She responded to claims that she is a career politician.
" We need someone that is a fighter and that refuses to give up, and that is what I have proven. And that is exactly what we need at the CFO's office, because we need someone that stands up and is willing to fight and doesn't give up, and that's what I did at the State Senate. That's what I did when I got reelected," she said.
A pillar of her campaign is to create a "report card" for insurance companies in Florida. It would consider things like how fast each insurer answers claims, how often they delay or deny payment, how much of your premium goes to their own affiliates and how financially sound they are. It's part of an effort for insurers to be more transparent about why rates are going up.
"I think we need to see everything. We need them to show us the case to raise the rates. They raise the rates every single year. If I showed up as a business owner to a bank with false documents and claimed that I was in the red and I was at a loss, I would go to jail," she said.
She also said she supports a moratorium on AI data centers, but admits there's little the office she is seeking can do about their construction.
" People need to know where they're being built. It shouldn't be hidden. As CFO, there are limitations as to what you can do, and I wanna be honest with everyone about that but I do know that any use of taxpayer dollars any private information should be put out," she said.
Listen above to the Oct. 30, 2026, interview with or find The Florida Roundup wherever you get your podcasts.
