Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has made it his mission since being appointed to his job last summer to target local governments for alleged “wasteful and excessive spending.”
That’s opened him to criticism that while he’s been quick to get before the cameras to denounce local officials for being poor stewards of the people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars, he’s been relatively quiet when it comes to questionable spending from state coffers.
Take for instance, a vote by the Florida Cabinet in February that gave Hillsborough College in Tampa 22 acres of nonconservation land for a potential new ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball franchise. The team wants to build a stadium at the 113-acre campus, which would include a mixed-use entertainment district and renovated college campus.
The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s Office assessed the value of those 22 acres at $21 million, with buildings and investments valued at $26.5 million, as reported by the Florida Trident. But observers say the land could be worth many times more that value on the open market.
At the Tampa Tiger Bay Club meeting held at the Cuban Club in Ybor City on Friday, conservative activist Jim Davison told Ingoglia the land had been “valued conservatively between $200 and $250 million.”
“You’re not even selling it,” he told Ingoglia. “You’re gifting that to them.”
Ingoglia said backup documentation that came before the Cabinet when they approved the transfer in February contained no appraisal. The CFO said at the time of the vote that it “was to make sure we continue the conversation” and he maintained that stance Friday, adding that he does not support subsidizing private corporations to build stadiums.
“I have been firm in my belief in my resolve that we should not be giving taxpayer dollars — subsidies on the stadium deals that multi-billion-dollar corporations,” he said. “I do not think that the taxpayers should be footing the bill for any stadium anywhere in the United States.”
‘Best practice’
A moment later, former Tampa Bay Times editor Tom Scherberger followed up, telling the CFO directly, “You did vote to give state land to Hillsborough College.” Ingoglia responded that the vote was “to start the negotiations,” adding that the proposal before the Cabinet had a “reverter” clause saying that if negotiations stalled the land would go back to the state.
“That is true,” Scherberger replied, “but you did that without getting appraisals to find out how much that land was worth.”
Noting how critical he’s been of local governments for allegedly indulging in excessive and unnecessary spending, Scherberger asked Ingoglia whether he believes it would be a “best practice” for local governments to follow what the Cabinet did — “basically, give stuff away to private businesses without getting an approval first, knowing that it was going to lead to something that you say that you’re against, which is the public subsidy of professional sports?”
“I was very clear what my yes vote was. It was to open up negotiations. I was very clear,” he insisted.
During that Feb. 24 Cabinet meeting, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during the short discussion about the transfer that he had previously been asked, “How much is this land worth?”
“Honestly, I don’t know that it’s worth very much outside of this proposal, because a homebuilder would not put a subdivision there. No way,” DeSantis said. “People wouldn’t do commercial buildings right there now, I mean, really, in order to make this something that is special it has to be something unique like this, and I do think that there’s a lot of potential there, both for the college and for the team and for the fans and for the overall community.”
Campaign contribution records show that Patrick Zalupski, a Jacksonville home builder and one of the Rays owners, donated $250,000 to Never Back Down, the super PAC that supported DeSantis’ 2023-24 presidential campaign.
A non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Tampa Bay Rays, Hillsborough County, and the city of Tampa was announced Thursday that lays out the framework for the $2.3 billion stadium — including contribution from the county and city worth $967 million. Those local governments are expected to vote to approve the document next week.
That MOU is considered essential if the Rays are to acquire $150 million in state funds for campus renovations to Hillsborough College. Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephryhills, had originally sponsored an appropriation of $50 million, but the team has since asked that contribution go up to $150 million. The House has yet to approve a similar appropriation.
Earlier in the discussion, Ingoglia was challenged about excessive state spending by Alex Sink, a Democrat who served as chief financial officer from 2007 to 2011. She listed a series of what she claimed were questionable expenditures, such as the Cabinet spending $83.3 million of taxpayer funds to purchase four acres of waterfront property in Destin in September 2025.
Ingoglia said that he actually voted against the deal, and put his objection on the record at the time of the vote.
“I think it was way too much money, it just smelled, and I was not going to vote yes on it,” he said. “I voted no. You can check the tape.”
The tape is available via the Florida Channel, and it shows that when that land purchase was presented during the meeting, Ingoglia told DeSantis that he wanted to be “shown as a no vote on Item 4F.”
DeSantis followed up by saying, “So, you’re a yes, but you have reservations about that one. So you’re either a yes or a no on the vote.” The items were before the governor and Cabinet as a package subject to a single vote.
Ingoglia replied that he was a “yes” on all of the items discussed “except for 4F.”
“We’ll take that as a yes and your objection is noted,” DeSantis said.
Ingoglia has served as CFO since last July. It appeared at one point that he was going to have a serious primary race in August, first against state Sen. Joe Gruters and then against Pasco County state Rep. Kevin Steele.
However, Gruters dropped out when he was named Republican National Committee chairman last summer. Steele withdrew in February, saying he would instead run for re-election. Steele announced Friday that he will now run for the Republican nomination for Congress in Florida’s 14 District.
As far any Democratic opposition, only one candidate has filed to run in the CFO race. That would be Stephanie Lyn Leonard, who entered the contest in January but has raised just $125.
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
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