RivCo Supes Set To Balance Accounts, Approve $51.5M In Appropriations

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved $51.58 million in appropriations to meet Riverside County agencies' lingering financial obligations from the previous fiscal year.

In a 5-0 vote without comment Tuesday, the board passed the "cleanup" budget action to address imbalances stemming from overhanging expenditures that were not readily identifiable when the 2025-26 fiscal year officially closed at the end of June.

"Approval of the recommended actions will provide the budgetary authority necessary to record June invoices and other invoices applicable to 2025-26," according to an Executive Office statement posted to the board's agenda.

The allocations will require a draw-down of both General Fund accounts and agencies' internal budgets, officials said.

The outgo will cover expenditures tied to indigent defense contracts, Emergency Management Department obligations, capital improvement needs, Office of the Registrar of Voters' operational costs, the Information Technology Department's projects and other designations.

On June 23, the board formally adopted a $10.36 billion budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

County CEO Jeff Van Wagenen emphasized that a hiring freeze initiated last year will continue, along with targeted spending cuts and controls, to mitigate deficit spending. According to the CEO, "just-in-time" funding will be available to meet specific needs as the board engages in unending "budget management" throughout the current fiscal year.

Augmented outlays authorized by the board during budget hearings included $8.5 million more for the county Sheriff's Department, $679,000 more for the District Attorney's Office and $250,000 more for the Department of Animal Services.

The increased allotment to the Sheriff's Department was well below what Sheriff Chad Bianco insisted he needed to preclude patrol deputy layoffs. He told the board that without another $250 million, he'll end up slashing over 600 deputies from payrolls in the next few years.

"This is a massive number that we cannot recover from," he said.

Bianco said roughly $138 million of the $250 million request that his staff submitted to the Executive Office, which wasn't accepted, amounted to "stay flat funding" to keep the agency about where it was in staffing during 2025-26.

"These are tough budget times," Supervisor Jose Medina told Bianco. "The pain needs to be distributed across the county departments. As important as public safety is, it cannot be helped not to feel some of the pain (of spending caps)."

The county began the current fiscal year with a projected $46 million structural budget deficit.

The $10.36 billion appropriations plan represented a roughly 3.5% increase from the 2025-26 budget, which totaled $9.98 billion.

This year's blueprint indicated that 30% of allocations will be dedicated to health and hospital services, followed by 23% for public safety units, 19% for human services, 11% for public works, 9% for internal support to departments and 7% for agencies dedicated to various governmental operations, such as the Office of County Counsel.

The county's composite reserves were estimated to be $584 million.