Bay County TPO cites $31 million FEMA clawback, holds projects pending grants

Keith Brian, infrastructure officer for Bay County, told the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization on an agenda item that a $31,000,000 FEMA clawback is forcing the agency to delay or strike several surtax projects from its current list.

“Those strike projects were due to the FEMA clawback. We're currently dealing with a $31,000,000 FEMA clawback for our roads project,” Brian said, noting some projects previously shown on the surtax list are now crossed out while staff assesses next steps.

Brian said the county began its surtax projects in 2017 and has completed projects listed from 2017 through 2021, but one project from the original surtax list remains incomplete: Mignoia Beach Road Phase 2. He said that project was submitted twice for grant funding, was dropped once and picked up again, and that staff are “pretty sure we're going to get the grant funding this time,” so they have held the project pending the grant decision.

He also told the board that some bridge projects have been funded at 100% by the state Department of Transportation. “Some of them are bridge projects. I've been pretty fortunate with the bridge projects to get the DOT to pay 100% on those projects,” Brian said, adding the majority of projects remain on schedule.

Brian and others described the FEMA situation as a backward payment dispute: the county carried out work earlier under what it says was written FEMA approval and is now being asked to return funds. “We did the work, dollars $31,000,000 worth of it, to only get to the finish line and have FEMA tell us they change their mind,” Brian said.

Miranda (surname not specified), who presented the financial report, said January sales-tax revenue came in “just over a million,” putting year-to-date revenue about $60,000 above the same period last year. “So our revenue is pulling strong still,” Miranda said, adding that the county had budgeted for sales-tax exemptions the state implemented last year and that the net effect on the county budget was not detrimental.

Miranda warned that the county’s accounting system moved to a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on March 3 and that reporting formats will change. Because of the ERP transition and a need to reconcile transactions, the packet included expenditures only through Feb. 28; March transactions will appear on the next report.

Members also noted there was no public participation at the meeting. The TPO announced its next meeting for Oct. 7, 2025.

The meeting record indicates the board discussed options — including restoring or permanently removing struck projects from the surtax list — but took no formal vote on specific project restorations during the session.