TAMPA — 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…