Portland Public Schools’ teachers levy collected almost $5 million less than expected this year, the district’s chief financial officer, Michelle Morrison, told the Portland School Board on Nov. 18.

The property tax levy, which collects $1.99 per $1,000 of assessed value, funded about 650 full-time teaching positions last year. (That number has declined over the years as teacher salaries have risen.)

In the presentation to the School Board that night, county economist Jeff Renfro explained that decreasing values on commercial properties, such as downtown office space, and the resulting compression of property taxes have contributed to a dip in revenue from the teachers levy over the past three years.

“Typically, we would consider 3% to be the floor of growth for assessed value,” Renfro

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