Riverside trustees approved the village’s operating budget for 2026 on Thursday, Dec. 4. The total budget for funds to be spent amounts to $35,458,968, an increase of about $676,000, or 1.9%, over the projected final total for 2025.
Total revenues and financing sources for the village are budgeted at $29,899,746, a drop of nearly $8 million from the projected total for 2025, with most of the drop accounted for in the village’s water and sewer funds.
In the general fund, which accounts for Riverside’s available funds for operations, revenues are budgeted at $12,593,864 while expenditures are budgeted at $12,570,660, meaning the village will be up by about $23,000 if the forecast is accurate.
According to an overview of the budget, nearly 73% of general fund expenditures will be related to personnel, which includes paying out salaries and benefits and contributing to pensions, while 46% of general fund revenues, about $7 million, will come from the village’s portion of property taxes, which accounts for about 15% of what landowners pay on their property tax bills.
In 2026, Riverside will for the first time collect a 5% amusement tax on streaming services and digital game purchases, which is budgeted to bring in about $40,000. Trustees approved an ordinance to adopt the tax at the Dec. 4 meeting.
The new tax was created to offset the loss of $45,000 that the village previously received from the state’s 1% grocery tax that trustees are allowing to sunset without implementing it locally.
The village is also newly dedicating $55,000 toward the creation of a bike and pedestrian plan to make Riverside’s streets safer and more accessible for people who choose to walk or ride rather than drive for transportation. The move comes after activist leaders with Ride Riverside earned nearly 200 signatures on a petition this year to implement Vision Zero policies, which have a goal of ending all traffic fatalities and injuries.
“I wanted to thank the village board and village staff for another successful budget year,” said Village Manager Jessica Frances at the top of the meeting. “It’s always an intense, heavy lift as we go through all of our planning processes, but staff is very pleased with the outcome, as I hope the board is as well.”
Trustees on Dec. 4 also authorized the village to issue $12 million in bonds in order to apply for three zero-interest loans from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency worth $4 million each in 2026, 2027 and 2028 in order to continue to replace leaded water service lines in the village. Each of the loans will have a 30-year repayment term.
All municipalities are required to begin replacing the service lines by 2027 and maintain annual progress to complete them all by 2044 due to a state mandate from 2022.
“A final ordinance will be presented to the board each year in order to accept the loans from the state and receive the funding,” said Finance Director Yvette Zavala.
