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Palm Beach County, Florida · Palm Beach County FL FY2026 Adopted Budget

Palm Beach County — the money trail

$9,606,627,411
Palm Beach County, Florida — the state’s largest county by area, ~1.5 million people. This is the adopted all-funds budget for FY2026, $9.6 billion, grouped by function as the county reports it. Two honest caveats the county’s own documents make: about 21% ($2.0B) is Reserves held rather than spent, and about $968M is interfund transfers — the same dollars moving between funds — so the operating appropriation is roughly $4.58 billion. The Sheriff’s Office alone is $1.10B. The countywide operating millage is 4.5000 per $1,000 of value, on a $343B tax base. Every figure ties to the county’s FY2026 Budget in Brief and Fact Sheet, which agree to the dollar. Click any number to see exactly where it comes from. Where the trail goes dark, it becomes a numbered issue in the docket. New here? Read our story or take the plain-words tour.
Cross-foots ✓ 7/7
The real money is in your city or town. With no county government here, the budgets that shape daily life — schools, police, roads, trash — are municipal. Browse every city and town →, and walk the ones we've ingested line by line.
Now you've seen it — say what matters. You don't write the budget; the people you elected do. But this is the record they answer to. Tell them what to lean into, or what to take a fresh look at, and why. Set the priorities.
✓ Sourced○ Cited◐ Partial⚠ Ambiguous✖ Dead end
✓ Sourced = cited to a document and the math re-adds to the dollar. ○ Cited = cited to a document, but the math isn't independently double-checked yet. Hover any mark for what it means.

Where it goes — $9,606,627,411 appropriated

▶Public Safety$2,112,199,12822%✓ Sourced
The Sheriff’s Office ($1.10B, the single largest agency), Fire Rescue, and county public-safety programs.
▶Reserves$2,021,242,27021%◐ Partial
Money budgeted but held in reserve, not spent unless the Commission appropriates it — about 21% of the whole budget.
▶Transportation$1,241,428,85413%✓ Sourced
Roads, engineering, Palm Tran transit, and the county airports.
▶General Government$1,184,065,45612%✓ Sourced
Countywide administration, the constitutional officers, elections, and property appraisal.
▶Interfund transfers$968,010,75810%◐ Partial
Money moved between county funds — counted in the headline total, so part of the $9.6B is the same dollars moving once.
▶Physical Environment$721,516,5198%✓ Sourced
Water Utilities, environmental resources, and physical infrastructure.
▶Culture & Recreation$559,172,1836%✓ Sourced
Parks, libraries, and cultural programs.
▶Economic Environment$338,041,0574%✓ Sourced
Housing, economic development, and tourism.
▶Internal Services$207,917,7162%✓ Sourced
Fleet, risk management, and shared internal services.
▶Human Services$171,421,6532%✓ Sourced
Community services, youth services, and health programs.
▶Non-Departmental$81,611,8171%✓ Sourced
Countywide costs not tied to one department.