Riverside manager lays out 2026 budget; council establishes year‑one stormwater and solid‑waste funds amid resident objections

City Manager Josh presented a draft 2026 budget Monday night to the Riverside City Council that keeps overall spending largely consistent with 2025 while launching new utility funds for stormwater and solid waste and continuing work to start city utility billing. The presentation warned that income‑tax receipts have been buoyed this year by timing of Defense Finance and Accounting Service payments and that the federal government shutdown creates revenue uncertainty for the remainder of 2025.

The budget proposal includes a new stormwater utility intended to generate ongoing revenue for maintenance and capital projects identified in Riverside’s 2015 stormwater master plan. Staff told council the master plan identified roughly $15 million in deferred capital needs a decade ago; after inflation that figure is likely higher. For year one the city expects about $1.4 million in stormwater fee collections, short of staff’s $2.0 million target to fully fund both personnel and capital work. To get the program started the draft budget includes a $250,000 advance from the general fund that staff expects to repay if collections meet projections. The city also plans to pay its own stormwater fee (about $28,000) from internal accounts in year one.

Manager Josh said the stormwater fund is structured so it can support future bonding for larger projects if revenues materialize. “If…