The Portland School Board held a public hearing and gave a first reading to the proposed $102.8 million school budget on Tuesday night.
The board will vote on the budget March 31 to send it to the City Council for consideration. A public referendum on the budget will be held May 12.
Only one person spoke at the public hearing. Steven Scharf urged the board members to find ways to trim the budget.
“We need to put some brakes on,” he said, noting that the school budget and associated cost to taxpayers increases every year. “We can’t keep going in this direction. We need to have somebody on your board say, ‘Stop, we’re paying too much.'”
The proposed budget would increase the school portion of Portland’s tax rate by 23 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, adding $46 to the annual tax bill for a $200,000 home.
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