The good news about DeSantis taking on waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars in Florida is that he can put on dark sunglasses, tote a chainsaw and get to DOGE-ing.

Great news: Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida is getting its own DOGE squad.

Let the tears begin!

“I’m excited about this effort to take some of what we’ve seen in Washington that they’re doing with Elon Musk and apply it to Florida,” DeSantis said at a press conference earlier this week.

I’m excited too. Florida DOGE — which stands for DeSantis Obviously Getting Envious — will finally address the rampant government waste in the state.

In the interest of helping out, I have a few slam-dunk examples of how DeSantis can demonstrate that he means business with the Florida DOGE.

Desantis wants to get rid of waste? Let's stop defending political theater.

For starters, he can go after the foolish waste of money Florida taxpayers have incurred in order to defend laws serving as political stunts.

For example, the state of Florida just paid $725,000 in legal fees and costs to companies that successfully challenged the state’s Stop WOKE Act, a law that attempts to prevent private companies from conducting workplace training that deals with diversity and race-based issues.

I know. Ridiculous.

The clearly flawed attempt to coerce private businesses to abandon their free-speech rights in order to parrot the political views of a particular political party has been an unconstitutional exploding cigar.

Yet, it was passed so (name redacted) could say “woke” for as long as it takes for him to get a better job outside of Florida.

As a result, not only did taxpayers get stuck paying the attorneys fees of the companies that sued, but the state also retained its own Washington, D.C.-based lawyers, who billed at $725 an hour each.

That’s a lot of wasted money that could have been used elsewhere, such as filling the need for social workers.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average social worker salary in Florida is about $57,000.

So, instead of paying lawyers to defend indefensible political theater, Florida could have used that money to hire 127 social workers.

Go DOGE that.

Cut wasteful spending on immigration stunt

And while you’re at it, there has been a lot of waste, fraud and abuse involved in the political stunt of flying asylum-seeking migrants in other states around the country.

Tricking 50 Venezuelans who were legally seeking asylum in Texas to board a plane chartered by Florida taxpayers in order to dump them in Martha’s Vineyard has been costly. Floridians have paid at least $1.6 million to an aviation company and another $1 million or so in legal fees in trying to mop up the aftermath of what amounted to the most expensive attempt by a person to be a guest on Fox News.

In per-capita terms, the stunt cost Florida taxpayers about $35,000 for each Texas Venezuelan. I think it's safe to say that spending Florida tax dollars on Texas Venezuelans is a sterling example of waste, fraud and abuse.

Go DOGE that.

DeSantis talked about needing to DOGE the state university system in Florida. I couldn’t agree more.

DeSantis wastes taxpayer money on unqualified university hires

Career educators have been pushed aside and forced to resign in order to hand college and university president jobs in Florida to unqualified DEI (DeSantis Entwined Individual) hires.

As a result, former Florida House Speaker and state Education Secretary Richard Corcoran is running New College of Florida for a compensation package that is worth an estimated $1.3 million — far more than the $305,000 salary the career university administrator who was pushed aside had been paid.

At Florida International University (FIU), Jeanette Nunez has traded in her $135,000-per-year state job as lieutenant governor to take over at FIU in Miami, where she will have her own provided home and a compensation package expected to be worth about $1 million per year.

Same thing goes with Adam Hasner, a former Republican lawmaker who found work as a private prison executive. Somehow, he has been deemed worthy of the presidency at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), where he too will be making close to $1 million in salary and other compensation.

That’s a lot of pressure on state university foundations, who have to foot most of the bill because a state law limits pay to university presidents at $200,000 per year.

Using taxpayers dollars to fund political ads seems pretty wasteful, DeSantis

And here’s another DOGE issue.

In November, about 55.9 percent of Florida voters said “yes” to Amendment 3, a proposed Florida amendment that called for legalizing recreational marijuana. That was just short of the 60% threshold needed for passage.

There was something odd about the lead-up to the vote. While most voters approved the amendment, they also footed the bill for a lot of the advertising against the measure.

That’s because Gov. DeSantis used $50 million in taxpayer money to fund advertisements urging voters to reject the amendment.

Using millions of tax dollars to pay for political ads? That sounds more like government waste than government efficiency.

“No matter where you stand on this issue, this is still a democracy. We do not spend taxpayer dollars in advance of a political issue,” said Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, a supporter of the amendment. “Tax dollars are meant to be spent on our police, schools, roads, and other public programs that make our state great, not political agendas.”

Go DOGE that too.

The good news about DeSantis taking on waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars in Florida is that he can put on dark sunglasses, tote a chainsaw and get to DOGE-ing without needing to look beyond his own office.

Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network-Florida.