At its Dec. 2 meeting, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors reviewed the status of its current Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget at the end of its first quarter, Sept. 30. Without any discussion or review, the County Executive’s report was accepted.
For the remainder of the current fiscal year, the fiscal projections are improving. Since approval of the initial FY 24-25 budget in June, the discretionary revenue estimate increased $46 billion, from $1.240 billion to $1.286 billion, a 3.7% increase. The two principal sources of growth are interest earnings, which increased $18 million, and property tax revenue, which increased $17 million.
The Board also accepted without discussion two items that will have future budgetary impacts. These are approvals of re-negotiated memoranda of understandings with two of the county’s labor organizations – the Riverside Sheriff’s Association–Corrections Unit and the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local 777.
The RSA represents about 1,000 County employees within the Sheriff’s Department. This new MOU is for two years, through December 9, 2026.
LIUNA represents about 8,000 County staff employed throughout the various departments and its agreement extends through Feb. 4, 2027.
Together the total cost of both MOUs will be about $135.8 million. But the FY24-25 portion, about $24 million, will not affect the current budget. “For the 2024/2025 Fiscal Year, the RSA and LIUNA agreements were factored into the Department’s budgets,” said Arianne Murphy of the County’s Public Information office.
While the report to the Board stressed that the revenue increases may “represent one-time increases or temporary upticks,” the Economic and Revenue Forecast for the County indicates the property tax revenue may continue to grow around 6% over the next four years. The Lowe Institute of Political Economy at Claremont McKenna College prepared the forecast for the County.
A second important result since the FY 24-25 budget was approved in June is the projected increase in the County’s General Fund reserves. Six months ago, the Financial Department estimated that reserves would be $555 million at the end of FY 23-24. However, for several reasons, the final reserve balance increased to $762 million.
The increase in reserves is primarily attributable to a surprisingly higher discretionary revenue balance at the end of FY 23-24. The final discretionary revenue ended the year $120 million greater than expected.
The County attributed the greater revenue to interest earnings ($45 million), property taxes ($38.5 million), motor vehicle taxes ($11 million), and RDA residual assets ($9.5 million).
