How your tax dollars are allocated
Your property tax bill isn't one tax. It's several governments each taking a slice. Here's who gets what from your bill, where each government's other money comes from, and what it pays for.
Research compiled Oct 20, 2026
How a property tax bill works
- Your home gets a value. The Property Appraiser sets it each January. Subtract any homestead exemption and you get your taxable value.
- Each government picks a rate. The county, the school board, your city and a few special districts each set a rate in mills. One mill is $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value.
- Add up the slices. Your bill is every rate times your taxable value. The Tax Collector sends one bill and passes each slice to the government it belongs to.
Each of these governments is a taxing authority. Rates here are for fiscal year FY2026.
Your bill, slice by slice
Estimate using FY2026 rates| Who gets it | Rate (mills) | Taxed on | Your share | Of your bill |
|---|
The same home at each year's rates
Holds your value fixed, so only the rates changeThis covers property taxes only. Your actual bill also has non-ad valorem assessments (flat fees for things like fire service, stormwater or garbage) and may have other exemptions for seniors, veterans or disability. Paying in November takes 4% off.
Where all of Bay County's property tax goes
Total levied in FY2026: $421.9MSix years of property tax
Total levied each year, by who receives itShow as a table
Total rate where you live
All slices added up, in mills. Lower is less tax per $1,000 of value.Bay County raised its rate from 4.4362 to 5.4362 mills in FY2024. Parker started a city property tax in FY2024. Panama City Beach has no city property tax. A rate that stays the same can still be a tax increase under Florida law if it's above the rolled-back rate, because rising values bring in more money.
Each government's money
Where it comes from, and what it pays forSources and gaps
Tax rates and levies come from the Florida Department of Revenue: 2025 Comparison of Taxes Levied, Bay County and the 2025 Bay tax district rate report, matched against the Bay County Tax Collector's 2025 rates. Earlier years come from the same DOR tables for each year. Every district's rates add up to DOR's published total.
FY2026 budgets come from each government's adopted budget, linked under each government above. Audited actuals for FY2021 to FY2024 come from the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research (county and city reports), which compiles each government's annual financial report. They cover operating funds, including utilities, and leave out borrowing and transfers between a government's own accounts so nothing is counted twice.
The calculator applies each rate to your taxable value. With a homestead, the first $25,000 comes off every tax, and a second amount (on value above $50,000) comes off everything except school taxes. That second amount was $25,000 through 2024 and is now adjusted for inflation: $25,722 for FY2026 bills. It does not include other exemptions or non-ad valorem fees.
What we couldn't find (10)
- Bay District Schools' final adopted budget for 2025-26 could not be downloaded from the district's site. The total shown is the tentative July 2025 figure, and the fund detail comes from a state education department file.
- The school board's split between the state-required rate and the local operating rate is published only as one combined dollar figure ($128.6M).
- School rolled-back rates are not published in the state data used here.
- The Sheriff's own full budget, including contract and grant money, was not found. The county's link to it opens the Property Appraiser's budget instead. Only the county-funded part is shown.
- Callaway, Springfield and Mexico Beach do not post their FY2026 budgets online. Parker posts only a draft. Their tax rates and levies are official.
- Where Bay County books its $22.2M Front Beach Road CRA payment is not shown as a line in the county general fund.
- Audited figures for FY2025 are not out yet (only Callaway's FY2025 spending has been posted by the state).
- Rates for non-ad valorem fees (fire, stormwater, garbage) are incomplete, so the calculator leaves them out.
- In the audited figures, CRAs set up as separate legal entities are reported apart from the city or county and are not included here. Bay County's figures include the Sheriff and other constitutional officers but do not split them out.
- Tax year 2026 (FY2027) rates had not been published by the state when this page was built.