A large south Sacramento County park and fire district has obtained $3 million in annual concessions, thanks to new contracts with two employee groups and a requirement that 110 unrepresented workers take furloughs, district officials said Thursday.

Jeff Ramos, general manager of the Cosumnes Community Services District, said the moves affect 261 employees starting Oct. 1 and continuing through June 2013.

The savings will help offset a 17 percent decline in property tax revenue since the downturn began. Another 3 percent drop in property tax revenue is forecast for the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2012.

The agency, by its action, also became the latest public employer in the region to restore varying forms of employee contributions to the California Public Employees' Retirement System as a means to ease the budget squeeze.

The changes affecting all categories of employees will be shared by their respective bosses, including the general manager, the parks administrator, and the fire chief and deputy fire chief, Ramos said.

The two new contracts affect 144 members of Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522 and another six battalion chiefs and one fire marshal in the Management Employees Organization.

Each calls for the safety employees to resume contributing money in support of their retirements.

Like many other jurisdictions, the services district in past years began paying the employees' share of CalPERS contributions as an alternative to higher pay.

That won't change under the contract.

But there's another, larger contribution that the district makes to CalPERS also on behalf of safety employees. It is the employer share of workers' retirement costs, and it amounts to nearly 25 percent of safety employees' salaries for 2012, Ramos said.

Under the agreement, each firefighter will pick up a portion of that – an amount equal to 3 percent of pay.

The upshot: The district will continue to shoulder the safety workers' 9 percent contribution, but the district's own 25 percent share will drop to nearly 22 percent.

That's a benefit to the workers, Ramos said, since CalPERS will consider that 9 percent contribution from the employer as income when it calculates benefits at retirement.

The district also is requiring the 110 unrepresented miscellaneous employees to begin making contributions to their retirements and, in addition, to take the 15 days of furloughs starting Jan. 1. Those furloughs will cut salaries by 5.77 percent overall, Ramos said.

In contrast to safety workers, the miscellaneous employees' share of contributions to CalPERS is 8 percent, and the district has long shouldered that contribution.

Starting Jan. 1, Ramos said, the workers will be required to pick up half of that 8 percent contribution. They'll begin paying the entire amount to CalPERS starting July 1.

Ramos said the changes imposed on miscellaneous workers will save the district $1 million annually starting July 1. The savings from the firefighters' new contracts will make up the other $2 million in yearly savings.

The Cosumnes district serves about 169,000 south Sacramento County residents over a 157-square-mile area that includes Galt and Elk Grove.

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