More police, fire jobs added in Riverside for $21.9M budget this year

The hirings — among the highlights of the $21.9 million all-funds budget — are the result of a 1% income tax increase approved by voters in 2021, hiking the rate to 2.5%, officials said.

“The priorities that the community set on public safety with last year’s income tax increases that the public voted for is certainly something that is a priority in our budget,” Riverside Mayor Pete Williams said.

The budget reflects fully staffing the city’s safety forces with 22 in the fire department — including three lieutenants — and 23 police officers, Rauch said.

“The additional (fire) staff will allow us to increase our daily staffing on each shift to better serve the community,” Rauch said. “This will increase the frequency in how often we can place additional (fire department vehicles) in service without cross-staffing units. With any additional staffing, this increases our safety and effectiveness on fire-grounds and emergency scenes.”

The income tax increase requires the city to use 60% of the funds generated for public safety and 40% for the general fund, the budget states. The general fund this year is $4.84 million.

But police and fire spending will be supplemented with about $584,000 in general fund money, according to the plan approved by Riverside City Council last month.

This year’s budget is about $4 million less than 2022′s largely because of fewer dollars projected from federal grants and the amount committed to debt service, mainly for Wright Point, Rauch said.

Riverside bought those Springfield Street office buildings on about 7 acres in 2013 for $2.66 million.

Grant revenue was $2.83 million in 2022 as opposed to $217,000 this year, according to the budget. That drop is also reflected in this year’s capital infrastructure outlay, which is $823,750, about $2.77 million less than in 2022, according to the budget.

The most significant capital project this year will be the continued repair of the Harshman Road wall dividing traffic near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Rauch said. It is budgeted for $355,000, while Phase I of the Spinning Road resurfacing from Eastman to Linden avenues is planned to cost $58,000.