DOGE - Impacts On The City Of Hallandale Beach

Cities and counties in our state must submit a balanced annual budget and are subject to annual audits and submit a Comprehensive Annual Report CAFR. Hallandale Beach, for example, just received an audit with zero findings. Our entire budget is online and accessible for everyone including the state for review. The state has access; they should use it and not require our staff to do their work. So, what are they asking for? In short, they are asking our staff to create documents in an effort to cover their own DOGE failure attempt.

Mayors and Managers at every level of government received a DOGE basic request back in March and responded. After there was radio silence. The recent DOGE campaign was announced through a staged statewide campaign. The recent DOGE correspondence was sent July 11th, with a response deadline of July 21st. When I first received the email, I was extremely perplexed and annoyed for our professional staff. I sent an email to Dr. Earle to share my thoughts. “While I know we will comply with their request it is perplexing as all this information is available in our audit and our Comprehensive Annual Report CAFR.”

At the end of the email the state offered government agencies to contact them if they could not make the deadline. This was a full page of questions asking our staff to comply in their own excel spread sheet form. The report asked once again about population, revenues, and the entire budget with expenses of every single department. This was not just for one year but all the way back to 20-21. Our staff, including the Finance, Budget Committee and Information Technology, got to work instantly and worked over the weekend in hopes of not having to ask for an extension. Many cities and counties asked for extensions, some 30 days.

On Monday July 21st in an email to Dr. Earle our Finance Director on behalf of the team explained our complex ledger structure does not simply tie into an excel sheet. IT worked on a solution, and they have completed all the tabs but the final one. Rather than rushing and losing value data the team asked for an extension until August 8th.

I am sure this same issue is being addressed by every agency. I cannot imagine what large cities and counties are going through.

Many residents may not realize all Florida governments are currently going through their 2024-2025 budgets that must be approved before October 1st. This DOGE mission is taking all our staff away from critical daily duties.

As a note, we have a fully accessible state-of-the-art IT system. The main issue is they are asking staff to create a work sheet to fit their needs. Typically, auditors will come in and request access to documentation and our systems, but the auditors do the work.

Our staff has requested an extension simply because the time was not possible. The unrealistic request of all the government agencies to comply within 11 days shows a true lack of understanding of the complex financial system or was a deliberate attempt to create a lack of faith in our government.

This contrived narrative that all governments have waste and are abusing taxpayer dollars is strictly feeding a political base. The goal is not to cut taxes. They are looking for a “smoking gun” in an attempt to suggest that our property taxes are too high.

If you had a chance to read my State of the City. The State of Florida, you already know that our state is the fourth lowest taxed burden state in the nation. Our state does not have income tax and has an incredibly low sales tax rate of 6%.

Our cities depend on property taxes to pay for services that directly impact safety and quality of life of each resident. Our state did nothing to cut insurance costs. They cut many local requests to fund much needed infrastructure. Our Northeast Flood Control request was cut.

Now, being faced with costs to cover education, schools, and health insurance, they are teeing up a bait and switching. Cut property taxes but increase sales tax. Great for the state as they collect sales tax and do not rely on property taxes.

We as a city rely on property taxes to pay for vital services; Police, Fire, EMS, Water and Wastewater Services, Flood Control, Sanitation Services, Municipal Road Maintenance, Park, and Beach Services. Every citizen needs to understand what services each level of government provides.

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns, and ideas to make our City a better place on my Phone/Text at: (954) 632-5700. Or you can email me at: jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at: Mayor Joy Cooper. Like! Follow! And share!