Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to follow in the footsteps of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, announcing Monday he’ll launch a commission to root out waste and inefficiency in the Sunshine State.

The Republican governor, who ran against Mr. Trump in the 2024 GOP primary, said he’ll audit local governments and the state government for wasteful spending in an effort to lower taxes, especially property taxes that have risen as municipalities have increased spending.

Mr. DeSantis also is seeking legislation to give the state DOGE team “enforcement power” to ensure local governments comply with the audit. The audit would last about a year and would use artificial intelligence to analyze spending.

“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, both to our local governments, our universities, and then particularly looking at how we have been auditing ourselves and doing this over many numbers of years,” the governor said.

Mr. DeSantis proposed eliminating 70 state boards and commissions, which would terminate 900 jobs, and axing an additional 740 state jobs.

Mr. DeSantis follows eight Republican-led states from Iowa to Texas where governors have started versions of DOGE to stop wasteful spending.

Mr. DeSantis said even before DOGE was created, he had already trimmed state spending and rejected federal money that came with requirements to track tailpipe emissions, implement diversity initiatives and other “noxious policies.”

Florida enjoys a budget surplus. Mr. DeSantis said he wants to help pay down the national debt by returning nearly $1 billion in unneeded federal funds.

“We want to figure out how we can do it even better,” Mr. DeSantis said.

By auditing local governments, Mr. DeSantis said he hopes to find ways to stop the rise in local property taxes, which have increased throughout the state along with local spending.

“They’ve opted to increase their own budgets and even subject their citizens to higher taxes, such as higher property taxes to pay for these spending habits,” the governor said. “I’m going to be looking for ways to bring people relief from that.”

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.