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Spending

Compare budgets across years

Pick a government and any two fiscal years to see what grew, what shrank and what's new: the total, the General Fund, each department, each service and each fund, in dollars and percent.

All governments shows Lynn Haven, which has the most years of detail
One year in detail →

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The simple version

How to read a year-over-year change

  1. Each fiscal year starts October 1. FY2026 runs from October 2025 to September 2026 (schools: July to June).
  2. Adopted budgets are the plan the commission approved before the year began. Audited actuals are what really came in and went out, reported to the state after the year closed, so they lag about two years.
  3. A big swing isn't always new spending. Hurricane recovery money, a one-time grant or moving a cost from one department to another can make a line jump or vanish. The notes under each budget say what changed.

Every year on record

Tap a year to compare it

What changed, by department

General Fund
Went upWent down
Table

What changed, by service

Departments grouped into common services
Table

What changed, by fund

Every fund
Table

Which years we have

For every government
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Missing a year? Budgets come from each government's adopted budget document. Where a city doesn't post one, you can ask for it.

Sources and how this is compared

  • Lines are matched across years by department or fund number where the budget prints one (Lynn Haven), and otherwise by name, so "Legislative - Commission" and "Legislative (commission)" count as one line. A line marked new or gone is in only one of the two years; often it was renamed, merged or split.
  • Departments are the General Fund only. Utilities, the CRA, disaster recovery and other funds are in "by fund".
  • Totals count transfers twice. When one fund pays another, both show it, so a total can rise just because more money moved between funds.
  • Services group each government's own department names, the same way as the budget explorer. Transfers, reserves, debt and disaster lines are kept apart.
  • Data: /api/v1/budget-compare · every line: budget-years (CSV).