If a Department of Government Efficiency (U.S. DOGE or FLDOGE) weren’t such a politically fraught sideshow, there’s nothing inherently evil about a government clearly establishing its core mission and functions, analyzing its income and ensuring its spending aligns with those priorities. That’s what every taxpayer should want.

Most of us do that with our family budgets. Our core functions likely include food, shelter, healthcare, communications (think smartphone), transportation and utilities. If there’s enough left over, we budget for the extras that make life easier. A new car, a night out, a vacation, toys for the kids. If income falls short, the extras go first and then we make tough choices among the core expenses.

The same should be true of taxpayer-funded budgets; ditto nonprofits and other organizations that rely on grants (public and private) and donations. How long has it been since the boards you serve on or the organizations you support financially have done a “zero-based” budget process? Meaning, how long since they asked: “What if we started all over?”

AH Monroe, which began in 1986 as AIDS Help, is a poster child for this kind of adaptation. Its first core function was taking care of hundreds of Key West AIDS patients who were ostracized, destitute and dying on the island. It was a task this group of neighborhood friends and supporters did well. Decades later, when AIDS treatment and drugs improved, AIDS Help adjusted its core functions to include affordable housing, first for those with AIDS and later for the community as a whole, while maintaining its commitment to meeting needs of today’s AIDS survivors.

That transformation was not without its challenges, of course, not the least of which came when AH Monroe backed away from its 34-year sponsorship of the annual Fantasy Fest King and Queen fundraising events. The 2022 campaign, which raised $305,637 for AH Monroe, was its last. The decision by the AH Monroe board acknowledged both that it was time for another charity to benefit and that event administration was sucking time, energy and resources from its core mission.

Rather than being beholden to “we’ve always done it this way,” AH Monroe has managed to avoid stagnation and irrelevance.

FLDOGE | Political litmus tests, not good governance

Unfortunately such discernment, especially for governments, now comes at the point of a political-agenda-driven sword. Nationally it was Elon Musk’s assault on the federal government. In Florida, it’s Gov. Ron DeSantis’ minions rooting through county and city budgets in an effort to spread fear and abolish any sense of home rule. FLDOGE is forcing political litmus tests on our elected officials as they work through next year’s operating budgets.

DeSantis’ fiscal shock troops are sweeping through the state, armed with an eight-point list of priorities, each laden with ill-defined and cautionary warnings: (1) areas of significant or rapid spending growth; (2) contracting activities; (3) activities in support of wrong, unlawful or anti-scientific ideologies; (4) spending on activities that are trendy or low-ROI (return on investment); (5) unnecessary use of taxpayer funds to support NGOs (non-governmental organizations); (6) subsidized competition with private enterprise; (7) audit compliance, and (8) performance metrics: measuring the right things correctly.

Take a look at Nos. 5 and 6. Wonder why Monroe County axed the Conch Connect worker transportation program? Pretty simple if you buy into the FLDOGE argument that government shouldn’t subsidize a transportation service when there’s a perfectly good private enterprise transportation on call. A Conch Connect ride was a couple bucks because the government subsidized it. Meanwhile taxis, Lyft and Uber are easily five times that for the same ride. It’s not about taking care of our workers who can’t afford Uber; it’s about protecting business.

The real outrage trigger comes with No. 5: About four dozen Monroe County nonprofits or NGOs stand to lose as much as 50 percent of their government grant funding in the next fiscal year. Not because they fail to provide critical services or because they’ve been found wanting in some way, but because FLDOGE is likely to consider them “unnecessary use” of taxpayer funds. Add in a few of FLDOGE’s other adjectives — trendy, wrong, unlawful, anti-scientific — as defined by FLDOGE and we can kiss farewell to some of the most valuable charities in the Keys.

It is entirely possible that FLDOGE will look askance at even 50 percent funding and simply red-pencil all of it. Because FLDOGE isn’t about smart spending aligned with core functions. FLDOGE isn’t about better government. It’s wholly about eliminating home rule in Florida and imposing a political agenda designed to hurt those most at risk.

Do we give up? No. There are two Monroe County public workshops coming before the final budget vote: 5 p.m. Sept. 3 at the Harvey Government Center in Key West and 5 p.m., Sept. 10 at the Nelson Center in Key Largo. Tell our commissioners to do the right thing and that we will pay higher taxes to ensure those most at risk are taken care of — FLDOGE be damned.

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HOW SHOULD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PREPARE FOR FLDOGE AUDIT?