County grapples with budget

Pandemic funding still available as supervisors look to balance services with revenues up

If Riverside County’s new budget had a theme song, it might be the rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems.”

Though tax revenues are up and there’s still plenty of COVID-19 relief money, the county is grappling with old and new challenges in the fiscal year that starts July 1. The Board of Supervisors discussed the budget in a Tuesday workshop.

By law, the county must pass a new spending plan by June 30. Public budget hearings are scheduled for June 13-14.

The county’s $6.9billion budget funds services for 2.4 million residents and pays more than 20,000 county employees. Just under $1 billion is under the board’s direct control. The rest is mainly state and federal money ticketed for specific programs.

Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic stoked fears of a $100 million budget shortfall in 2020. Instead, $431 million from the federal CARES Act and surging tax receipts buoyed county finances, funded the county’s pandemicfighting efforts and helped struggling businesses and renters.

The county expects to receive $479million from the American Rescue Plan, Washington’s second COVID-19 relief package. And the next budget should have $1.013 billion in discretionary revenue thanks to rising property sales tax receipts, interest earnings and motor vehicle license fees, County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen told supervisors.

But Congress isn’t expected to authorize

another round of COVID-19 funding. And it’s important to use that money for targeted one-time costs and not continuing expenses, Van Wagenen said.

For years, the county has tried to pay for ongoing costs without dipping into savings. That goal remains elusive.

“We know that we had to rely heavily on our reserves coming out of the Great Recession (of 2008-09) and we have struggled to fully backfill all of those reserves,” Van Wagenen said.

There also are signs the U.S. economy is heading toward a recession — “I feel like we’re at the peak of the bubble in the economy,” Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said — that could put the brakes on soaring tax revenues.

“We want to be able to make sure that we have sufficient reserves to weather a future economic storm,” Van Wagenen said.

In the meantime, the county faces a growing list of demands from new spending. County departments have asked for as much as $150 million in new funding, including $85.5 million from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department alone, according to Van Wagenen.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin, Sheriff Stan Sniff and his successor, Chad Bianco, have lobbied the board for more money, putting pressure on supervisors who have pledged to support public safety but only have so much money at their disposal.

As one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties, “we know that we need to constantly work towards improving (public) services … and make sure that we have the ability to do that,” Van Wagenen said. “There’s a price tag associated with that.”

There’s also an estimated $160 million price tag to tackle a list of capital projects — “really just deferred maintenance projects,” Van Wagenen said.

The county in recent years has tried to upgrade infrastructure in unincorporated areas where basics such as sidewalks and drainage are lacking.

“We’re enjoying potentially the largest increase in revenues in a very, very long time and I feel that we’re perhaps shorting our unincorporated communities from the infrastructure that’s needed,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries also wants continued investment in the fire department to overhaul aging stations and add fire engines.

“Every time we have one working fire, we have numerous communities that don’t have a fire engine,” he said.

Earlier this month, the board directed the county executive office to look into why county departments are having problems recruiting and retaining employees. “Solving that problem will cost money and we need to make sure that we are able to support those efforts moving forward,” Van Wagenen said.

A draft budget should be available by the end of May.