Jeffries discusses property tax allocations

The following article is from Riverside County District Supervisor Kevin Jeffries’ “September Jeffries Journal E-Newsletter.” To view the full newsletter, visit http://supervisorjeffries.com.

Kevin’s Corner 

For all of you who have ever woken up in the middle of the night asking yourself, “What the heck does the County of Riverside do for me?” let me offer some not-so simple answers.

First off, when you send that painful property tax check each year to the County Tax Collector, you need to know that only 11 cents on the dollar is actually retained by your county. Lots of other government agencies get a slice of your property tax dollars, leaving little behind for your county (and your city if you live within a city). That’s why counties and cities like to attract businesses that additionally generate “sales tax” revenue; but even then, only a few cents of the 8 cent/dollar sales tax is kept by the county or city to provide local services.

That’s why we as shoppers are encouraged to buy our gas or other purchases in our local community, so that our tax dollars can be reinvested to provide services. Sadly, we get no direct return from income taxes, which sometimes reduces the motivation of local government bean counters to incentivize the creation of high-paying jobs instead of retail, though clearly, those higher Income workers will purchase more goods and more expensive homes.

The County of Riverside provides many services that all 2.3 million residents benefit from, regardless if you live in a city or a non-city (unincorporated) community in the County. Some of the services available or provided to everyone include: County District Attorney (prosecuting the alleged bad guys), Public Defender (defending the alleged bad guys), Corrections, aka County Jails (incarcerating the bad guys), and the Probation Department (monitoring the bad guys who aren’t in jail).

Then there are all the services for those not in trouble, including: Veterans Services, Office of Aging, County Medical Clinics and Hospital, Mental Health Services, Adult Protective Services, Child Protective Services, Economic Development, County Airports, Regional Parks and Open Space, Public Health, Environmental Health, Registrar Of Voters, Assessor, Assessment Appeals, Flood Control, Clerk-Recorder, Agricultural Commissioner, Department of Public Social Services, Emergency Management (assisting with coordination and delivery of federal, state and local disaster services and supplies), and Waste Resources (landfills) – and a few others I’m forgetting.

For those who live outside of city boundaries, not only can you access all the services above, but the County provides most of the rest of your basic services (other than utilities and schools), including the Sheriff Department, County Fire Department, Animal Services, and Code Enforcement (all four of these services are also provided to many cities via contract services).

Additional services provided exclusively to unincorporated communities by the County include Roads, Building and Safety, and Planning.

So even though a majority of our population lives within one of the 28 cities in Riverside County, the County’s $5.3 billion budget serves all 2.3 million residents. But if you added up all those unincorporated residents who rely exclusively on County services, they would be the largest city in Riverside County, including almost 350,000 residents (City of Riverside coming in second, with a population of almost 320,000).

In fact, if you just took the 110,000 unincorporated residents in my district, they would make up the fourth largest city in the County, behind only Riverside, Moreno Valley and Corona (numbers based on 2013 census estimates).

What all that means is that my job as Supervisor is to be sure we are taking care of the majority of the population of my district that lives in cities, without sacrificing the needs of the large number of unincorporated residents who rely entirely on County services. My staff and I are dedicated to making sure that County services are delivered professionally, cost effectively, and that you can access the services you are paying for as taxpayers – at least within the budget available to us today!

As always, I welcome your comments, questions, and complaints,