Riverside County government’s budget for the coming fiscal year would increase 4% under a tentative appropriations plan that the Board of Supervisors is slated to review Monday, requiring a draw-down of savings to cover an anticipated budget gap, though department heads may ask for more.

“We face immediate and formidable challenges,” county Chief Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said in an introduction to the 500-plus-page spending proposal. “Inflationary pressures, growing labor costs, unpredictable state and federal funding and necessary investments in aging infrastructure strain our financial capacity.”

By law, the board must have a working spending blueprint in place by the start of the new fiscal year, July 1, though formal approval of appropriations can be deferred until Septembe

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