The all-Republican commission commiserates about DOGE failure to shrink government, but does not vote on Bob McCann’s proposal.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: June 4, 2025
Host: Home prices on the Suncoast are dropping at the fastest rate since the 2007 crash, and the time homes for sale are on the market before they get sold is at record levels. In other words: The next real estate crisis is here. But when a Manatee County Commissioner requested a discussion and possible motion on a temporary freeze for county hiring at the meeting Tuesday, it was less about the real estate crisis than about wanting to shrink government.
Johannes Werner: The very last item on the agenda of Tuesday’s Manatee County Commission meeting was put there by Bob McCann. He titled it “Discussion, with possible Motion, for Temporary Hiring Freeze to Enhance Government Efficiency During Economic Downturn.”
But McCann did not talk so much about the economic downturn than about his frustration with the futility of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to shrink government. So how can you actually shrink government? McCann argued that before every budget cycle, county staff should present a precise picture of all moving parts of the county administration.
Bob McCann
Bob McCann: I think we need to be a little more precise in what we’re doing. I think we need to be a little more accurate. And I think we need to be a little more transparent. That was what the Department of Government Efficiency was supposed to do. It didn’t work that way because they took a wrecking ball to everything—well, actually, a chainsaw—but we need to find out exactly who’s here, exactly where they’re employed, where they’re going, what they’re doing—and we need to be able to plan for the future because that’s what the budget’s for. We need a strategic plan. We need a business plan. We need to run this like a business so that we can have an accounting of all these things and say, “Oh, yeah, we can do that for you out of this pot of money.”
JW: McCann’s venting came a month after a successful motion by his colleague George Kruse to draft a resolution for the county to form its own mini-DOGE committee. Kruse was piggybacking on a Ron DeSantis initiative to replicate the state’s DOGE efforts.
Amanda Ballard seemed to make a similar argument but added her interest was too late for this year’s budget cycle.
Amanda Ballard: We need to have a discussion as a board as we go into our budget cycle of how we can meaningfully cut the fat, and with the way that our budget process is currently structured, we have very limited ability to actually shrink government. We only have, really, the ability to slow growth or to say no to new positions.
JW: George Kruse essentially said it ain’t easy.
George Kruse: Here’s the fallacy of the best intentions of shrinking government. It’s an awesome thing to say. It looks spectacular on shiny things that show up in mailboxes and on Facebook. But look at federal government. They just literally hired Elon Musk to, quote unquote, shrink government. He saved them about $6. And then they didn’t even codify that in a bill. He accomplished nothing whatsoever. The whole DOGE thing was kind-of just for fun. That’s unfortunately a lot of how government goes.
The one thing I will say about this government—and I get it. The intent is to shrink it. I’m known to propose, “Let’s look at the DOGE thing.” Our government is—regardless of what a few people come in to say or people want to imply out in the public—we are very lean relative to—we don’t even have libraries on Sundays. We don’t have buses on Sundays. We have people complaining that they can’t get permits because we don’t have enough people on permitting.
JW: Next week, Manatee County Commissioners will meet in the first of three budget workshops, to discuss next year’s budget.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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