Portland school committee urges voters to approve $171.8 million budget; explains reassessment effect on mill rate

The finance, operations and personnel committee of the Portland Board of Education on Monday urged voters to approve a $171,800,000 school budget in a referendum scheduled for June 10, 2025, and explained how the city’s recent reassessment affects the district’s mill rate.

“We are reminding people to get to your polling place, and vote in support of budget, so that we can continue the work of providing excellent education to the students of Portland,” Sarah Bridal, chair of the committee, said at the June 9 meeting.

District leaders said the figure on the ballot is the school district’s tax levy — the total dollar amount the district requests to operate next year — and that the city will use its total assessed value to convert that levy into an individual property tax rate. Dr. Scallon, superintendent, said the levy portion of the proposed budget is about $127,000,000 and the full budget number includes grants and federal funds such as Title programs.

The superintendent outlined why a higher assessed value does not necessarily produce proportionally higher property taxes for homeowners. “If your letter says that your assessed value went up 60%, we know that the property tax that we budgeted for the mill rate was only 5.3. We know that it's not going to be 60%,” Dr. Scallon said, explaining that the city divides the district levy by total assessed value to set the mill rate.

The meeting included additional details: the district’s proposed budget was developed with input from community members, school leadership, the school board and the city’s finance committee and city council; staff noted that a reassessment of values across Portland was conducted by Tyler Technologies and communicated to homeowners; and district staff said May financials were not yet closed because the last pay in May fell on May 30 and the formal closeout process takes about two weeks.

Board member Lena asked when the new mill rate would be released; Dr. Scallon said that timing is set by the city and typically occurs after the vote and after the city finalizes assessments and any appeals. Board member Opperman asked whether the city’s total assessed value is available; staff said the official total had not been released at the time of the meeting.

The committee repeatedly emphasized that the question before voters is the levy amount on the ballot and that individual tax impacts will vary by property and by how the reassessment changes the share of the city’s total assessed value that a given property represents.

Committee members closed the meeting with a unanimous voice/visual vote to adjourn at 7:05 p.m.

What happens next: the referendum vote is scheduled for June 10, 2025; if approved by voters the city will compute the district mill rate using the final assessed value totals and the levy approved by voters.