The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This is for those posts that we wish to feature here at Deep Sand. It implies that these are a bit extra special.
“Waste” should describe money spent badly. Too often, it becomes a political label applied before anyone proves that a program failed, cost too much, or duplicated another service.
This essay looks at how that label can be used to weaken support for public programs before the facts are settled. Real waste should be cut. Political dislike should be debated honestly. Those are not the same thing.
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The Hillsborough County DOGE committee reviewed a large volume of records and announced more than $678 million in possible savings. But its own report also admits that the work involved limited due diligence, no transaction-level testing, and no independent verification.
That does not make the report useless. It does mean the public should treat it as a list of leads, questions, and proposed cuts, not as proof that hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted. A lot of documents can produce a big number. They do not automatically produce an audit.
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Not every proposed cut is the same. Unused software licenses, underused vehicles, vague contracts, and weak bidding rules are real places to look for waste.
But the Hillsborough County DOGE report also targets nonprofits, equity work, community outreach, and cultural programs. In this essay, I separate genuine control problems from programs that appear to have been labeled “waste” because committee members do not like their purpose.
Political opposition is fair. Calling it financial analysis is not.
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The Hillsborough County DOGE committee calls the county health care plan a source of major savings. But ending care for more than 22,000 low-income residents is not the same as making government more efficient.
This essay looks at what the program actually does, why voters approved the tax that funds it, and what happens when needed care disappears from one budget line only to reappear in emergency rooms, hospitals, charities, and family finances.
Cutting a program may make a spreadsheet look better. The harder question is whether the community pays more when the service is gone.
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Before accepting the Hillsborough County DOGE committee’s findings as a neutral review of county spending, it is worth asking who selected the people doing the reviewing.
The five-member panel included several people with solid professional backgrounds, but only one had clear forensic accounting credentials. At least three had strong Republican Party ties, including committee chair Jake Hoffman, a former Republican candidate and Young Republican leader.
This essay looks at how the committee was formed, how its members were chosen, and why a politically tilted advisory panel should not be treated like an independent audit team.
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The Hillsborough County DOGE committee says it found roughly $678 million in potential savings. That sounds impressive, until you look at what the number actually includes: entire public programs, contract limits, fund balances, possible management changes, and spending choices committee members simply do not support.
In my latest essay, I take a closer look at the report and the difference between finding real waste and labeling any disliked program as waste. The committee may have raised some fair questions about fleet use, software licenses, contracts, and oversight. But cutting a service is not the same as making government more efficient, and a large number is not proof.
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The historic Tiger Bay Club of Tampa is known for hosting fierce, politically mixed audiences, the exact kind of room where business-friendly traditional Republicans used to enjoy a home-court advantage. Yet, at a recent Florida State Senate candidate forum following the club’s monthly luncheon, the Republican side of the dais looked like an abandoned movie set. Not a single Republican running for a State Senate seat representing Hillsborough County bothered to show up. Incumbents Nick DiCeglie and Jim Boyd, along with former House Representative Josie Tomkow, staged a coordinated vanishing act, leaving empty chairs where accountability was supposed to sit.
This missing-in-action routine isn’t just a scheduling oversight; it’s a strategic flight from a room full of constituents demanding answers. Over the last several years, this trio has marched in lockstep to strip local self-governance through state preemption while simultaneously passing disastrous property insurance “reforms” that sent premiums into the stratosphere. By refusing to face the music, and a polite crowd over a plate of chicken piccata, Hillsborough’s ghost candidates proved they would rather hide behind multimillion-dollar PAC mailers than explain why their legislative records read like a pocketbook nightmare for local taxpayers.
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For years, the Latin phrase Res severa est verum gaudium has appeared at the bottom of my personal letterhead. I understood it to mean, “True joy is a serious thing,” and I loved the way it gave joy weight. Only recently did I learn that the words came from Seneca.
That discovery opened the door to a deeper reflection on the difference between happiness and joy. From the grand ending of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to a quiet hillside in Boone, this essay explores the kind of joy that carries memory, beauty, loss, gratitude, and meaning all at once.
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Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest district in the nation, is facing a top-down assault disguised as “local accountability.” State Representative Michael Owen’s House Bill 4027 calls for a referendum to eliminate our professionally appointed superintendent in favor of a partisan elected office. The schools are already governed by an elected board of education. This change is not about transparency; it is a calculated effort to force a toxic culture-war agenda into our local classrooms and strip our school system of seasoned, professional leadership.
The structural fallout of this power grab is devastatingly clear. Instead of an experienced educational administrator focused on student performance, our district risks being handed over to a political partisan. Under an elected model, policy decisions on curriculum, budgeting, and student safety will inevitably bow to the need for campaign survival, turning every fourth year into a multi-million-dollar reelection spectacle. This essay shows how Owen’s legislative overreach, paired with his habit of distorting local facts for political points, threatens the shared institutions our children rely on.
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This is the 4th in a series related to this 250th Fourth of July
Imagine, for just a moment, that one of America’s Founders could return on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and quietly walk among us. What would he see? More importantly, what would he think?
In this work of historical fiction, I explore that question through the eyes of an aging observer who discovers a nation that has exceeded the dreams of 1776 in remarkable ways while, at the same time, placing many of its founding ideals in jeopardy. His journey takes him from Independence Hall to Monticello, Gettysburg, Selma, and Washington as he confronts both America’s greatest achievements and its deepest contradictions.
The result is not a history lesson or a political speech. It is a meditation on liberty, citizenship, and the unfinished work of the American experiment. Along the way, familiar figures from our past take on new meaning, old promises are reconsidered, and one unforgettable question is left for every generation to answer.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read The Second Declaration. I suspect it may stay with you long after you’ve reached the final sentence.
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Essay 3 of a series examining where we are at 250 years
That question is easy to ask but far more difficult to answer. It is tempting to surrender to cynicism, retreat into anger, or simply conclude that one person’s voice no longer matters. Yet history tells a different story. Every major step toward a more just America began because ordinary people refused to believe that tomorrow had to look exactly like yesterday.
This concluding essay in my 250th Fourth of July trilogy is not about despair. It is about responsibility. It is a personal reflection on the kind of citizen I have decided to be, regardless of the political climate, and an invitation for each of us to consider the role we will play in writing America’s next chapter. Because history will move forward. The only question is whether we will help hold the pen.
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