A new user-friendly guide to Foley city finances and other municipal information is available online and in some public offices. The report contains both financial and demographic segments for the City of Foley.

Foley has released new edition of the Popular Annual Financial Report.

The report presents financial information and other data for the last fiscal year, Miranda Bell, Foley financial services director, said.

“This is designed to make our financials more understandable,” Bell said. “The general public can look at this report and understand where the money came from and how it was spent.”

Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the report presents the information from the more than 200 pages in the audit, in 14 pages.

What makes this report so good is that it places information on the level where people can really understand, instead of something that’s three inches thick,” Hellmich said. 

The mayor praised the work done by the Finance Department staff to prepare the report each year.

In the 2025 fiscal year, Foley spent about $100 million. The largest single area of expenditure was for capital projects. The city invested $33 million in projects that included road improvements, improvements to parks and recreation facilities and land purchases. Capital spending also included money spent on the construction of the new library and public works campus.

Public safety was the area with the second-highest rate of city funding.

The city invested $20 million in public safety in the 2025 fiscal year.

Other investment areas included culture and recreation, highways and streets, economic development, general government and debt service.

Sales and local taxes were the largest source of revenue in the last year bringing in 52.7% of the total. Other areas of income included utility tax equivalents, licenses and permits and investment income.

The PARF also includes a variety of other types of information about Foley. The Police Department answered 27,847 calls during the year. The Public Library received 122,231 visits from patrons and circulated 330,047 items. Attendance at Sports Tourism events was 208,000.

In 2025, the median family income in Foley rose to $66,336, up from $43,614 in 2020. The unemployment rate fell from 2.9% in 2024 to 2.3% in 2025.

The Foley PAFR has received the Government Finance Officers Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting for six years in a row.

The award is one of three awards the GFOA has presented to Foley for several years. 

Foley has also received the GFOA’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its annual comprehensive financial report. The city also received the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.

Hellmich said very few cities in Alabama receive all three awards, a distinction known as the “Triple Crown,” each year.

“There are 465 cities and only five receive this. I think we’re one of two in Baldwin County,” Hellmich said. That’s a high honor. These are very high standards to achieve.”

The PAFR is available for viewing on the city website. The report and other information, such as the city budget, can be viewed at https://cityoffoley.org/finance/.