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Commissioner Proposes Efficiency Study to Cut Tax Burden, Streamline County Operations
November 16, 2025
Escambia County District Four Commissioner Ashlee Hofberger has introduced a proposal aimed at addressing fiscal accountability and operational effectiveness across county departments. The initiative calls for a comprehensive organizational efficiency study, with the ultimate goal of reducing the tax burden on residents.
The District 4 commissioner’s proposal is scheduled for consideration at Monday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting. If approved, it would direct county staff to solicit proposals from qualified consulting firms to conduct the in-depth review.
The selected firm would evaluate all county departments, engaging directly with managers and employees to identify opportunities for reorganization, resource optimization, and improved service delivery.
“This initiative is about making government work smarter for the people it serves,” she said. “My goal is to create a clear roadmap that ensures Escambia County operates efficiently and responsibly. Some departments are stretched too thin, while others may not be achieving the impact our taxpayers expect. Across-the-board cuts don’t work — critical areas like roads, infrastructure, and public safety need strategic investment, not reduction. The key is to reallocate resources where they make the greatest difference for our residents.”
She said the proposal follows strong community advocacy for adopting the property tax rollback rate and reflects growing public demand for more efficient government spending.
“If this evaluation had been conducted last year, the county could have saved an estimated $11 million,” she stated. “An independent, third-party review will bring transparency and objectivity to the process — free from internal bias or favoritism — so we can make data-driven decisions that truly benefit taxpayers.”
The BOCC will hear Hofberger vision during a regular meeting on Monday, November 17 at 9 a.m.
“No one has ever emailed me asking to raise their property taxes,” Hofberger added. “Our residents expect us to do everything possible to reduce the tax burden while maintaining essential public services. This study is a step toward that goal.”
Comments
16 Responses to “Commissioner Proposes Efficiency Study to Cut Tax Burden, Streamline County Operations”
Unbelievable! I worked all my life to buy a home. Now I live off Social Security on less than $1,400 per month. They went up on the fire tax. Now they are running schools that have no students and again went up on our property tax. Now of all things, they want to spend millions on studies. Take the millions you want to throw away and come down on our property tax. Vote these people out! They are useless! I’m tired of starving and eating bread and butter sandwiches. It’s a shame.
GREAT. If she needs a million dollar study THEN Lumon will need three, million dollar studies and Barry will need at least 2 million dollar studies for their districts…
Why pay for another expensive study report . Reduce taxes , increase efficiency in operations , support homestead tax exception . They all voted for tax increase , so actions matter . We the people are paying more for less . Broken tax system . Tax revenue is not a politician piggy bank . Wasting money on a paper pusher report creates an expenditure , not revenue .
One way to reduce taxes.is for our county commissioners to stop engaging in frivolous lawsuits. Over $10,000,000+ of taxpayers monies were spent on losing lawsuits…because our commissioners don’t have to spend their own personal monies because of their position, there should be a ruling that if they are on the losing end of a lawsuit, they personally must reimburse the expenses to the county budget.
Could have started before the$34M fire Tax increase.
Looks as though all of the commentators here need to run for county commission, since they have all of the answers.
she is one of the commissioners that added mega bucks to the taxes this year. mine went up $120 more then it ever was; fire protection went from 125 to 220. . now she wants to spend a million dollars to figure out how to help with taxes. REALLY; she was NOT voted in; she was assigned the seat by desantis. not surprised she wants to saddle us with more taxes; like when desantis let FPL to come up here and triple our rates over night for 3 YEARS, even though that company made over 150 million in profit that year. . they keep saying they want to drop property taxes and then they raise the rates. RHINO.
VOTE THEM OUT ALL OF THEM
“ I’m from the government and I’m here to help you “ .
Can the department directors not identify means to accomplish “streamlining” in house? Of course they can. The directors are not blind to making things efficient! They are highly intelligent people. There is absolutely no justification to hire a consulting firm to increase efficiency without tapping their expertise first.
If high taxes are of such great concern, much of the problem lies in the fact that the Florida Legislature has enabled voters to have tax breaks and exemptions for dozens of reasons. (We all get a flyer on these breaks each year in our Homestead Exemption receipt mailer each January.) When one specialty group gets a break or an exemption, it simply raises tax burdens on all remaining parties.
She certainly didn’t have a problem raising the fire tax and now wants to make cuts ?
Spending 2 or 3 million on a study is money wasted.
Dump half the Library system and half of ECAT, save 40 mil or so .
Free advice , no payment required.
This county is really good at paying money to consultant firms. It seems every time a decision is to be made by our county commissioners, you pay some consultant to do your job and taxpayers picks up the bill!!
escambia commissioners will not roll back taxes unless pressed real hard to do by the state. they wanted a piece of childerns trust property tax_was a county wide vote to single out property owners/buyers to fund !
The Escambia County Florida annual budget for fiscal year 25/26 is $868,481,773. That is an 8.74% increase over the 24/25 annual budget of $798,672,479, which was a 12.97% increase over the 23/24 annual budget of $706,948,562, all according to opengov.com.
Please note this does not include the 856.1M FY26 school board budget, which increased there budget by $52M partly to address falling enrollment (can’t make this stuff up)
Running just Escambia County government and the Escambia County school system is rapidly closing in on TWO BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR for a population of 325,000 people, or $5300 per person.
$11M is just a drop in the ocean.
Couldn’t agree more. DOGE the heck outta Escambia
If the study hasn’t been conducted, how can an estimate of 11 million dollars of potential savings be claimed?