26,000+ Riverside residents put roads ahead of public safety in budget survey

Riverside County just got a very blunt answer from residents about what feels broken. It is not mainly a call for more policing. It is a call for smoother roads, better day-to-day services, and basic infrastructure that people touch constantly. On May 12, the county gave its Board of Supervisors a new analysis of 26,543 survey responses, and the headline was clear — public works and community services slightly outranked public safety in the public’s budget priorities. ### What actually happened? The county ran its annual Community Budget Priorities Survey from January 5 through February 28, 2026, in English and Spanish, then sent the results to UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy for analysis. The board received that analysis this week as part of the county’s FY 2026-27 budget process. This was not a tiny feedback form either — 25,944 responses came in English and 599 in Spanish, for a total of 26,543. (riversidecountyca.iqm2.com) ### What did residents rank highest? The top cluster was public works and community services, then public safety, then health, then human services. That is the part that makes the story interesting. In a lot of local budget debates, “public safety” dominates automatically. Here, residents nudged something more mundane but more visible to the top — roads, utilities, and neighborhood infrastructure. (riversidecountyca.iqm2.com) ### Why did roads stand out so much? Because paved roads were the only utility and public-works need that a majority of respondents said their community needed. That is a strong signal. Not a vague preference — a majority. The same report says improved road maintenance was one of the most frequently cited initiatives overall, alongside social assistance programs, affordable housing, and medical care and health services. Basically, people are saying the county’s everyday operating layer needs attention. (rivco.gov) ### Does this mean residents do not care about safety? No. Public safety still landed near the top, and the same analysis says respondents favored putting a bit more than one-fifth of the county budget toward both health and hospital services and public safety. But they also wanted nearly one-fifth to go to public works and community services, with human services close behind. So this is less “cut safety” than “stop treating roads and basic services like secondary issues.” (rivco.gov) ### What else showed up in the responses? The open-ended comments pointed to a broader squeeze — infrastructure, transportation, affordable housing, and healthcare kept surfacing. Another detail matters here: Spanish-language respondents put extra emphasis on language access and equitable access to county services. That suggests the county is not just hearing “fix roads,” but also “make services easier to reach and easier to use.” (rivco.gov) ### Why is the county asking now? Because Riverside County has been trying to pull residents into the budget process earlier, before the budget is basically baked. Last year’s outreach brought in more than 24,000 survey participants. This year beat that. The county also added workshops and a Budget 101 guide as part of a broader effort to make budget decisions feel less closed-off and more responsive. (rivco.gov) ### So what changes next? The survey does not automatically move dollars. But it does give supervisors political cover — and pressure — to emphasize the stuff residents say they feel every day. The next key step is the county’s annual budget hearings on June 8 and 9, when those priorities have to turn into actual spending choices. ### Bottom line? Riverside County residents used a budget survey to say something pretty practical: fix the basics first. (rivco.gov) Roads beat public safety at the margin, not because safety stopped mattering, but because broken infrastructure is now competing for attention at the very top of the list. (rivco.gov)