BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Mexico Beach City Council members may be the only ones in the state considering a unique budgeting option. They’re thinking about using city funds to buy precious metals.
City officials believe it will be a good investment and a hedge against inflation. Mexico Beach has about $6 million in dedicated reserve funds sitting in the bank.
City Administrator Chris Hubbard wants to invest about one-third of that money in precious metals.
“While the price of precious metals does fluctuate on a daily basis, it’s never worth zero and, you know, it’s just it’s just a long-term safe investment,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard believes precious metals create value and protect the city from national events outside of their control. That includes federal debt, inflation, devaluation of the U.S. dollar, and the removal of the U.S. dollar as “Reserve currency.”
“Well, it’s something that’s not been tried, as far as I can tell, by anyone in the state of Florida. And when you look at, you know, what’s happening right now in our country, you have the economy with inflation, the devaluation of the dollar. I just think that you know, it would be good for the city to put something put some of our reserve funds in into something that’s not going to lose value,” Hubbard said.
Mexico Beach Mayor Richard Wolff said there are still unanswered questions. However, the city workshop was a great first step towards for completing the yearly budget plan.
“Well, we met our goal. Well, we did. I mean, the city ministry put together a phenomenal PowerPoint that had a lot of variables and it had a lot of questions. And we’re who we want to be and where we want to go. And it’s the council’s responsibility to answer that,” Wolff said.
The city has to adopt the final budget at the end of September. Hubbard said the next step would be a written investment plan that incorporates precious metals in the city’s portfolio.
The city attorney would have to review for legal requirements, then council members would have to approve the plan.