VERMONT – A Burlington committee has issued goals for addressing the city’s increasingly costly retirement system.
The group’s report states that taxpayers’ contribution to city employee retirements has risen from $274,878 in the early 2000s to more than $8 million in fiscal 2013. Meanwhile, Burlington, similar to other cities, saw its retirement system slip to only 69 percent funded.
The 16-member Retirement Committee began meeting in January, including Mayor Miro Weinberger and representatives of the four public employee unions, to begin discussing principles for changing those trends.
Among the committee’s goals, released Thursday:
• Have the retirement system 85 percent funded within seven years.
• Freeze city contributions to the retirement system for three years, then make increases based on a predictable equation.
• Agree on ways to adjust the retirement system if it gets out of balance in the future.
Any changes would have to come through collective bargaining with the employee unions.
Weinberger said in a statement the committee’s framework would stabilize retirement-system finances “in a manner that ends the steep rise in recent years of pension-related property taxes, ensures the City’s ability to make good on its commitments to retirees, and achieves a long-term resolution of the pension challenges that have plagued the City over the last decade.”
The mayor added that the goals would be challenging to reach during the current round of contract negotiations, but he hoped for “mutually beneficial results.”
Retirement contributions make up about eight percent of Burlington’s current general fund budget, according to the committee report.