Riverside County approves $10.3 billion budget, drawing on reserves as departments warn of funding gaps

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to approve a recommended $10.3 billion budget, with formal adoption scheduled for June 23 — capping two days of testimony that exposed deep funding gaps across nearly every county department.

The recommended budget totals $10.3 billion, a 3.4% increase over the current fiscal year, but only $1.4 billion of that figure represents discretionary revenue — money the board can allocate as it chooses — with the remainder restricted by law, grant conditions, or voter mandates.

“The discretionary general fund budget is not structurally balanced,” said Jeffrey Van Wagenen, the county’s chief executive officer on Monday. “We are recommending the use of $66 million from our general fund reserves, that represents approximately 10% of the projected general fund reserves at the beginning of the next fiscal year.”

The county projects ending the current fiscal year with $650 million in reserves, well above the board-mandated minimum of $320 million but still short of the $900 million target recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association as a best practice of two months of operating expenses.

Van Wagenen’s written budget revision on Tuesday included targeted investments across public works, finance and government services, human services, and public safety. It also increases the per-district allocation to the Unincorporated Communities Initiative from $2.5 million to $3 million annually, and directs $250,000 to the Department of Animal Services for a community outreach campaign. Funding for Lift to Rise and United Way, both of which have advocated for housing investments, was also included in the revision.

The revision did not include an increase to the budgets of several departments, including the county assessor, clerk-recorder, district attorney, Department of Public Social Services, Emergency Management, probation, behavioral health, correctional health, the medical center and clinics, public health, or the sheriff’s department.

Among the sharpest pushbacks during Monday’s day-long hearing came from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who told the board that the department’s $138 million unfunded “stay flat” shortfall — driven largely by negotiated labor contract increases — equates mathematically to eliminating 622 deputy sheriff positions.

He took issue the budget as a whole, saying that too much money was going to social services. “Public safety is the number one role and responsibility of government, not social programs,” he said. Adding, “Government was designed to have leftover money used for social services, not nearly 50% of the budget.”

That framing drew a direct challenge from District 3 Supervisor Chuck Washington, who pointed to the county’s Rivco One initiative — a program that coordinates wraparound social services for residents to reduce their contact with the criminal justice system — and noted that the sheriff had previously supported the effort.

“The more folks we can keep from getting all the way down the path towards law enforcement engagement, the better for you,” Washington said. “It was a win, win, win. But today you’re saying that [social services] should be extra, ‘Whatever’s left over in the budget,’ Did I hear that correctly?”

Van Wagenen offered some perspective, saying the sheriff’s department has grown from 3,766 employees in fiscal year 2019/2020 to 4,340 employees currently and that every other department also lacks new funding to support current staffing levels.

“The purpose for this fiscal year was to cap that growth and stay flat,” he said. “Do I think that there will be a reduction in employees at the Sheriff’s Department? Yes,” he said. “The issue is whether or not that will be sheriff’s deputies in the field that will be reduced, and the goal is not to do that.”

Supervisor Jose Medina, representing District 1, told the sheriff that the county is made up of 24 different departments, “And in tough budget times I do think that the pain that that causes needs to be distributed across the county, and I don’t think the sheriff’s department — as important as public safety is — is going to be able to not feel some of that pain.”

District Attorney Mike Hestrin also appeared before the board, detailing staffing and operational headwinds facing the agency. Hestrin said his office has experienced a “generational shift,” describing a combination of multiple long-time prosecutors retiring and law school graduates seeking employment in the private sector for better pay.

Supervisor Washington was sympathetic, comparing the salaries of prosecutors to those in the medical field at Riverside University Health System, “On county paper, it looks like we’re paying them a lot of money, because we are, but nowhere near what they could make in the private sector,” he said.

Hestrin requested a total of $16.2 million, including $13.8 million to maintain current staffing, money for updated technology and $679,000 from the augmentation fund to establish a dedicated cryptocurrency and cybercrime unit, citing the rapid growth of investment scams and fraud that he said disproportionately targets seniors. He said California led the nation in crypto-related financial losses in 2024, with $2.5 billion in reported losses, and noted that Riverside County has roughly 550,000 residents over the age of 60.

The Office on Aging asked for $315,000 to preserve home-delivered meals for homebound older adults, warning that pandemic-era federal and state funding is sunsetting and the program cannot sustain current service levels without a county investment. Supervisors were supportive of that figure and another $986,000 to keep serving congregate meals five days a week instead of reducing to four days a week.

Affordable housing emerged repeatedly as the top concern from residents, consistent with the county’s pre-hearing survey of more than 26,000 participants. Multiple speakers during public comment urged the board to continue and expand investment in affordable housing, including representatives of Lift to Rise, Inland SoCal United Way, and the Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, which advocates for residents in unincorporated Eastern Coachella Valley communities including Mecca, North Shore, Oasis, and Thermal.

Van Wagenen said no positions would be cut at the outset of the fiscal year. “This budget is not eliminating any positions, we are not deleting any positions, and the effort is to potentially shrink by attrition,” the executive officer said, outlining a strategy of hiring freezes and just-in-time reserve allocations to manage staffing costs throughout the year.

“If there has to be some sort of reduction in staff sizes, that it’s responsible and that it’s done over time,” he said.

He said at the end of Tuesday’s deliberations, “The absence of funding does not mean the absence of need,” a sentiment echoed by Washington.

“We signed up to serve people…I suspect there’s probably going to be more pain to come because if we continue on this path of deficit budgeting and spending and borrowing out of reserves, then we’ll be in a bad spot,” he said.

“We have to be careful, and what [Van Wagenen] presented to us does exactly that.”

The board voted 5-0 to close the hearing. Formal adoption of the revised budget is scheduled for the board’s June 23 meeting.

---