City council to draft resolution to help reduce cost of PERS for the government

MEDFORD, Ore – The Medford city council is planning to draft and vote on a resolution to help reduce the cost of PERS for public employers.

PERS or public employee retirement system will increase starting July first at the start of the new biennium, Oregon’s pension debt is estimated at 27 billion dollars. The city of Medford is looking at a $1.1M increase to its budget.

This week, the city council will draft and vote on a resolution to join an organization called Oregon PERS solutions. This group is made up of Oregon governments and municipalities, and they’re collecting resolutions from all over the state that urge the governor and Oregon legislature to help reduce pension costs for public employers.

“Right now there’s a bunch of different proposals out there to help schools offset pers increases but there’s nothing for local government,” city manager, Brian Sjothun said.

The city manager says over time, the increase from PERS could be as much as $3-5 million for the city of Medford. The city’s budget is around $365 million over the next two years so it could force the city council to make some tough cuts.

They’ll vote on the resolution this Thursday at 6 P.M.