Medford budget details PERS increases, property tax reductions

Medford, Ore. — The city budget committee got it’s first look at Medford’s upcoming budget for 2017 -2019. The nearly $295-million dollar budget accounts for increases in PERS payments and healthcare costs, as well as a decrease of about $3-million dollars in property taxes.

That property tax reduction is a result of a debt repayment by the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, meaning homeowners will see a reduction in their property taxes this fall.

The city’s finance director says the budget was balanced without making any cuts to personnel while maintaining services. However, the proposed budget doesn’t include any of the anticipated revenue from marijuana sales.

“We did not want to budget a revenue source we didn’t know what it was going to be because then you have expenses that you offset with that,” Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun says, “so we’ll come back in the second year of the biennium and meet with the budget committee again and we’ll have a real sense of what we feel we’re going to collect and then let them set the priorities on where they want to spend that money.”

The first public meeting regarding the budget will be held Monday, April 24th, at the Medford Police Department at 6 p.m. The committee is set to vote on the budget in June.