Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers is seeking a fourth term – carrying forward with his previous terms’ commitments: “making government more efficient, eliminating wasteful practices and ensuring we continually fight to root out fraud and abuse.”
In accordance with his tenets of governance, Eggers welcomed the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) audit and DOGE’s intent to root out waste, but pointed out what he described as a contradiction in the process. “We have our own internal audit opportunities that are constantly doing that kind of work,” he explained. “The irony is that while the DOGE folks are coming in looking for wasteful spending, the state also imposes unfunded mandates.”
To wit: while the state demands cuts and efficiencies, it also imposes new requirements that counties must fund without state support, complicating the commission’s ability to predict annual budgetary needs. Indeed, the Pinellas County commission has managed to roll back the millage rate (which is used to calculate property tax) for the past four years, but cannot risk a full rollback in the event of an unexpected mandate imposed by the state.
To balance those demands, Eggers said the county began a process to identify cost-saving measures that would not reduce services for residents.
To Eggers, efficiency and cost-saving aren’t just about balancing the annual budget – they’re about rethinking how local governments are structured. He has been advocating for a merger – or at least stronger coordination – among Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Pasco counties.
As an example, Eggers cited the $1.3 billion Franklin Howard Bridge project – a major investment that benefits multiple counties – as a model of regional cooperation. He argued that a merged or better-coordinated county system could strengthen the region’s collective bargaining power when competing for large-scale infrastructure funding.
In addition to infrastructure, Eggers continues to emphasize economic growth and cultural investment as pillars of his agenda. He says he wants to attract more high-paying businesses while sustaining the tourism and arts sectors that define Pinellas County’s identity. Yet the commission recently decided to defund the arts organization Creative Pinellas, though Eggers didn’t support the motion.
Instead, Eggers framed the issue through the same lens that guides his political tenure: structure and efficiency. He told Poliverse that the board’s decision to withdraw funding wasn’t about cutting support for the arts, but about whether it operated efficiently within the county’s broader system. He did hope for more deliberation before Creative Pinellas was defunded.
“There’s no doubt this county is committed to arts and culture,” he said. “It was more about how Creative Pinellas was structured, and it was a last-minute item during the budgetary process.”
Eggers’ campaign kickoff event is scheduled for tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Island Way Grill in Clearwater, and according to his latest campaign-finance filings, he currently has a modest $6,500 in donations socked away.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Eggers voted to defund Creative Pinellas, which was not the case. This version has been updated accordingly.