It is expected to cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $173 a year, county data shows. The current cost is about $129 a year, according to county records.
A replacement is like a renewal in that the levy is on the ballot at the same millage as the current one. However, with a replacement, the cost is valued at a home’s current rate, not the previous valuation as with a renewal.
Riverside officials see the levy as a “critical piece of funding” for law enforcement that helps stabilize its budget, City Manager Josh Rauch said.
Personnel, operating expenses and capital purchases such as body cameras and other equipment are among items funded by the levy, which has been approved by voters every five years since 2009, Rauch said.
“It’s a dedicated funding source for the department that could be spent on any of those things,” he said. “It’s a key piece of funding that allows us to provide police protection to the community in all those forms.
“It also makes sure that our salaries continue to stay competitive — especially in the current market — and that’s really important because the labor market is pretty thin in public safety,” Rauch added.
About $900,000 of the Riverside’s Police Department’s budget comes out of the general fund, Rauch said.
The department’s current authorized staffing level for sworn personnel is 30, with one spot vacant due to a recent retirement, according to Police Chief Frank Robinson.
The department is now seeking to fill that job, he added. A recent job posting for an officer lists the position with an annual salary of $64,833 to $83,553.
The department’s staffing and availability have been raised on social media platforms used by city residents. Speeding vehicles on main thoroughfares like Airway Road and in neighborhoods have been a concern.
While no decisions have been made, city officials have discussed possibly adding more police officers in the coming years, Rauch said.
Levy approval will help the police department to become more self-sufficient and “will help us get further ahead of the curve, and hopefully reduce some of the reliance on the general fund and help increase the sustainability of our finances overall,” he said. “And it gets us a step closer to answering some of these staffing questions and act on them to.”
Aside from this police levy, since 2019 Riverside voters approved one city tax issue and rejected two others, election records show. In 2019 and 2020, two road levies seeking 8 additional mills and 5 additional mills, respectively, were defeated.
The first one had 57.5% of the voters rejecting it while the second lost by 2%, county records show. An additional 1% income tax hike was approved in 2021 by 61.3% of voters.
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