Panama City approves millage rate dip, larger $121.413 million budget for 2023
PANAMA CITY — Lower property taxes and a surge of capital improvement projects are on the horizon for residents.
Panama City Commissioners in a budget hearing Tuesday approved the city's millage rate and total operating expenditure budget for fiscal year 2023, which will begin Oct. 1.
The new rate of 4.7999 is a dip from the 2022 rate of 4.8999. The approved upcoming budget is more than $121.413 million — about $3 million more than the city spent in 2022.
According to local officials, the primary reasons for the increase were inflation related to operating costs and upcoming capital improvement projects.
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"(Property) values went up a little, so we were able to lower the millage ... and pass on a little bit of savings to the public," Mayor Greg Brudnicki said. "There's going to be some (construction) delays (next year) because we are going to have people out there working.
"... When it's done, it's going to be spectacular, but in the meantime, pardon our progress. It's a necessary evil."
The total operating expenditure budget includes the city's 2023 general fund of almost $55 million, which is about 10% more than the 2022 general fund of more than $49.878 million.
Panama City identifies 70 projects connected to Hurricane Michael recovery
In past meetings, officials have identified about 70 needed capital improvement across the Panama City related to Category 5 Hurricane Michael, which struck the Panhandle in October 2018.
Brudnicki said he hopes for construction on many of them to begin next year. He also said he believes it is important for the city to get them done sooner rather than later because of ongoing inflation.
"Everything is going to get more expensive," Brudnicki said. "The sooner we get these things going ... the more bang we're going to get for our buck."
He and other local officials have said it has taken so long to break ground on many Hurricane Michael-related projects because a lot of them have funding from state and federal loans and grants, which took a while for the city to receive.
"I'm very excited about the fact that we are going to start the sticks and bricks part of (the city's recovery)," Brudnicki said. "We have a lot of very, very dated, just about worn out, infrastructure in this city.
"... Instead of continuing to put Band-Aids on things that need major surgery, we are now going to go ahead and do what needs to be done to actually replace and fix, rather than repair and fix."
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City OKs millage rate dip, $121.413 million budget for 2023
