With ballots already mailed out for next month’s statewide primary election, Riverside voters are being asked whether they support an increase and extension of the city’s Measure Z sales tax to cover the cost of a range of public services, including improvements to the city’s fire department.
To help voters make sense of it all, The Riverside Record has compiled information about Measure Z, including why the Riverside City Council voted to put it on the June 2 ballot and the arguments for and against the measure.
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What is Measure Z?
Measure Z is a 1% general sales tax — meaning that for every $100 spent, the city collects an additional $1 on taxable goods — first approved by residents a decade ago to help pay for a range of public services. It raised the combined sales tax rate in the city to 8.75%, on par with many other cities within Riverside County.
The measure was placed on the ballot by the city in 2016 to prevent $11 million in budget cuts that would’ve affected public safety and essential services. As part of the ballot language, the city estimated the sales tax would bring in about $48 million in revenue annually through 2036.
The sales tax, year over year, raised more than its estimated revenue projections and, by the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year, brought in almost $84 million. Since its inception, Measure Z has collected a combined $605 million dollars, including accrued interest, according to city documents obtained by The Record.
According to the city, the funds were used to purchase new police and fire vehicles, hire more officers, repave roads, trim trees, pay pensions, repair facilities, offer homeless services and upgrade technology.
Over the past nine years, the Riverside Police Department received about $215 million and the fire department received about $100 million, according to a March 3 report presented to city council.
Why are Riversiders voting on Measure Z again?
The Riverside City Council, earlier this year, voted in favor of asking residents this June whether they would like to both increase the Measure Z sales tax by a quarter-percent, to 1.25%, and to extend its current 2036 expiration date until “ended by the voters.”
If approved, the increase could bring in an estimated $106 million annually, which the city said would mostly be used to cover the costs of a massive “urgent” overhaul of the Riverside Fire Department (RFD) over the next 15 years.
The fire department has struggled to meet increased demands in recent years, according to staff reports, and was expected to continue struggling as the city grows. Since 2007, Riverside’s population has grown by more than 50,000 with emergency incidents increasing by about 72%.
RFD is also working with a thin staff compared to other cities across Southern California with a ratio of 0.69 firefighters per 1,000 residents, according to the city. AP Triton, a Wyoming-based consultant, suggested the department increase staffing to 0.95 per 1,000 residents.
“The fire department must, year over year, slowly grow just a little bit to keep up,” City Manager Mike Futrell told the council at the March 3 council meeting. “As the population increases, we should add a few firefighters to keep up, and we’ll never be back in this situation again.
The overhaul would include hiring 84 new firefighters, building two new fire stations and refurbishing several others by 2040.
Along with supporting the fire department’s overhaul, the revenue would also be used to expand RFD and address other needs like purchasing drone technology for police, upgrading the city’s cybersecurity systems, paying to maintain community facilities and repairing potholes.
The .25% increase would also raise Riverside’s sales tax to 9%, which would be the third-highest rate in Riverside County behind Cathedral City and Palm Springs, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration data. The tax rate, however, would still be below every city in Los Angeles County.
The argument for Measure Z
The residents who support increasing and extending Measure Z also have two main reasons: It would be used to upgrade a struggling fire department, and it would maintain — and eventually increase — many of the public services the city currently provides.
Mike Detoy, the president of the Riverside City Firefighter’s Association, said his members have felt a growing pressure to keep up with an ever-increasing demand in the past few years. As the population has continued to grow, especially in the Ward 4 region, the fire department has struggled to keep up with everyday incidents.
The effects of climate change have also made wildfires a year-round danger, he added. When RFD fought some of these large-scale blazes in the past, he said not enough resources were left to be able to respond to other emergencies. He said he believes the fire department could, with the voter-approved funds, prioritize expanding its capabilities to alleviate some of those mounting pressures.
“The Inland Empire, especially the city of Riverside, is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, and I think that is what we’re running into,” Detoy said. “When there’s people, there’s incidents, so we just want to be on the front end of it and be prepared for the next generation.”
Mike Gardner, a former Riverside council member, said that Measure Z also helped the city provide other essential services as its population grew. Gardner pointed to the hiring of 65 new police officers, which the sales tax helped fund. The sales tax extension and increase would help to continue paying for these employees, he argued, rather than having to cut funding to other services to keep them on staff.
Gardner also disagreed with calls from residents to instead place a special tax on the ballot, because he felt it would be impossible to get the required votes.
He added that the city decided to bring the ballot measure forward this year, rather than closer to the deadline, because the city wanted to quickly respond to a request from the new fire chief.
“For whatever reason, the former fire chief did not see the issue of understaffing and the need for new stations,” Gardner said. “When our current chief came on in 2024, he was concerned that maybe we do have those needs, so he commissioned a study … and that’s the driver for putting Measure Z on the ballot now.”
The argument against Measure Z
Residents opposed to increasing and extending Measure Z have two main reasons: The lack of a sunset clause and the fact that the revenue would go into the city’s general fund.
April Glatzel, chair for the Neighbors of the Wood Streets community group, said Measure Z was pitched to voters in 2016 to help fund public safety, including the fire department.
In those 10 years, she said Riverside had the opportunity to set aside money for the fire department but instead utilized it for other projects. The lack of foresight, in her view, has made her concerned about trusting the city with even more taxpayer money.
“We are for the fire department, we need their services, we love them,” Glatzel told The Record. “But we don’t want the city to get involved and use that money for other things, as they have already done in the past.”
She argued that to raise funds for the fire department the city should instead bring forward a special tax that specifies the funding could only be used for the fire department. She said she would be more willing to support a tax measure if it had those guardrails.
Although special taxes require a two-thirds majority to pass, she felt that would only be fair considering that the lack of a sunset clause makes it more difficult for residents to repeal Measure Z in the future.
She said she believes that since many of the city’s residents are not civically engaged, they would never be able to overcome the hurdles required to call for Measure Z’s removal.
“They have 10 more years to prove that they will use this money responsibly,” Glatzel said. “When the 10 years is up, then they can come back with us with a different measure, and we re-vote then.”
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