Tisbury Town Meeting: $20.2 million
A fiscal year 2010 (FY10) operating budget up 2.8 percent over last year and an annual town meeting warrant with 37 articles await Tisbury voters on April 14. Given the history of marathon annual sessions, the meeting in the Tisbury School gymnasium will start at 7 pm, a half hour earlier than has been customary, as agreed on by voters last year.
There's heavy betting on how many nights the meeting will run, especially because the question of granting licenses for selling beer and wine in restaurants and inns is once again before the voters.
If approved, it would authorize the selectmen to file a Home Rule Petition with the state legislature to put the question to voters on the next annual town election ballot in 2010.
Voters approved a similar article, vintage annual town meeting 2007, after long and emotional debate. The wording is somewhat different this time around, however, which may spark controversy.
The warrant, which is printed in today's Times and posted online at mvtimes.com, includes three debt exclusion items, six capital exclusion items, and five capital appropriation items, as well as articles to appropriate money from the town's passenger ferry embarkation fee receipts and Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds.
Tisbury's proposed FY10 $20.2 million operating budget represents a 2.65-percent increase, or $524,000, over FY09. A Voter Guide prepared by Tisbury's Finance and Advisory Committee (FinCom) notes that in the FY10 town budget, excluding schools, salaries, wages, and benefits will increase about 4.3 percent over FY09. All other expenses in the FY10 budget, again, excluding schools, will decrease by about 3.7 percent.
At annual town elections on April 28, voters will address nine ballot questions at the polls at the American Legion Hall, including three requiring Proposition 2.5 overrides, and elect town officers.
How it adds up
The largest shares of Tisbury's $20.2 million operating budget, up from $19.7 million in FY09, go towards education, employee benefits, and public safety.
The budget for Tisbury School and the town's assessment for the regional high school, which include a portion of the shared expenses for the superintendent's office, account for about $7.9 million, or 39 percent of the FY10 operating budget.
Educating approximately 306 students at Tisbury School, based on the 2008-2009 school census, will cost $4.9 million, up from 297 students in 2007-2008 and $4.75 million in FY09.
Tisbury's assessment for the regional high school decreased slightly this year, from $3.08 million in FY09 to $3.03 million in FY10, because the number of students from Tisbury attending the high school dropped, from 186 in 2007-2008 to 170 in 2008-2009.
Salaries, wages, and benefits for town employees make up 40.4 percent of the total budget, excluding schools, according to the FinCom's Voter Guide.
The town's personnel board and the various unions and employees, negotiate most of the increases, often in multi-year contracts. This year, Tisbury's FinCom took issue with the town personnel board's recommendation for a 4.1-percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for salaries for managerial and professional employees.
The FinCom considered it an issue of fairness, and proposed instead a 3.5-percent COLA in keeping with the rate the town's union employees will receive. If voters approve Article 32 to amend salary amounts for managerial and professional employees with 4.1-percent COLA increases, they in turn must approve Article 36, to add $5,388 to the budget to fund the salary increases. The FinCom voted not to recommend both articles.
Seasonal employee minimum wages will remain at FY09 rates, $8.14 an hour, and maximum wages at $10.53.
The town's share of group insurance, including Medicare and health and life insurance, comes to $3.15 million, up by about 7.3 percent over FY09.
Under the public safety heading, police, fire, ambulance/EMT, and emergency management services add up to more than $1.8 million. The police department FY10 budget is $1.3 million, up by 1.7 percent over last year, and the fire department budget $192,000, up by 1.1 percent. The emergency management budget, $7,500, is the same as FY09.
The ambulance/EMT budget is up by 6.7 percent, mostly due to contractual agreements for salaries, according to ambulance coordinator Jeffrey Pratt, who also included a warrant article requesting $11,400 to fund overtime and salaries for part-time seasonal emergency management service personnel, and included those costs in his FY10 budget.
Debt and capital exclusions
Three debt exclusion items will be included in ballot questions on the April 28 town election ballot. The big-ticket item, article 13, asks voters to approve borrowing $4 million to fund the design and construction of a new connector road between Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road and State Road, as well as fund the resurfacing and repair of various town roads and sidewalks. (See the related article)
Another ballot question addresses the town's share of debt for new school buses used at the regional high school.
In follow-up to a decision made at special town meeting last September, voters will be asked to approve bonding Tisbury's portion of the purchase option price for property in Edgartown in partnership with Oak Bluffs for a regional solid waste facility.
Six capital exclusion items also will be included in ballot questions. Article 16 asks for approval for the town to assess an additional $1.566 million in real estate and personal property taxes for the purpose of funding the annual amount of Tisbury's Other Post-Employee Benefits (OPEB).
Other items to be funded through additional taxes include $50,000 for identifying and surveying potential leaching areas for the central wastewater system; $80,000 for maintenance dredging in the Inner Harbor and Lake Tashmoo channel and outlet; $25,000 for funding the fourth year of a short-term disability program; $30,000 to convert the former DPW site to parking lot for Tisbury School; and $40,000 for repairing and repainting the Vineyard Haven Library.
Article 4 includes capital appropriations and other new equipment, such as $5,000 for new office chairs and $5,000 for new locks for multiple doors at the Tisbury Police Station. Three items pertaining to the harbormaster include $5,000 for continuing improvements at Owen Park dock, $5,000 to install new dinghy docks at Owen Park, and $2,000 to purchase aids to navigation.
In addition to the town's annual county assessment, Dukes County requested funds from Tisbury to participate in the county's pest control and Vineyard Health Care Access programs. The funds would come from the town's unreserved fund balance or "free cash."
Spending embarkation fee receipts
Voters also will be asked to spend $222,200 from the town's passenger ferry embarkation fee revenues. The 15 items included in the article were recommended for funding by the town's embarkation fee committee, which reviewed requests submitted by town departments.
Mr. Pratt said the ambulance department's requests include items for large-scale response and fire department interface response, of which a significant portion was based on review of the Main Street fire last July 4 and standards from the Federal government, post 9-11. The police department requested $30,000 to purchase and equip one new vehicle, and $50,000 for wages for four or more summer traffic officers and to upgrade training, equipment, and uniforms for all seasonal employees.
The fire department's requests included funds to repair and maintain Engine #2, and to purchase 18 inflatable rescue vests and an ice/water rescue sled.
The board of public works commissioners requested $16,000 for legal and survey work to acquire two parcels of land owned by the Vineyard Haven Post Office. They also requested $50,000 to construct a bike path along the Veteran's Park property line.
Community Preservation Funds
The CPA Committee recommended using $657,060 from the town's CPA funds towards eight projects this year. The funds come from a three-percent surtax on property taxes and are matched by the State at 65 percent.
Projects chosen by the CPA Committee this year include making improvements at Eastville Beach, restoring and managing Cranberry Acres, installing a sprinkler system and windows at the Vineyard Playhouse, continuing restoration and preservation of the Tashmoo Spring Building, restoring a historic stained glass window in the First Baptist Church, and contributing to various affordable housing projects.
Town treasurer Tim McLean said in a phone call Tuesday Tisbury has about $1.4 million in "free cash." If voters approve all of the articles that will utilize "free cash," including $1.2 million to balance the budget, Mr. McLean said there would be about $100,000 remaining until the fiscal year ends on June 30.
Although many outcomes are possible next week, depending on which articles pass, Mr. McLean offered three scenarios for taxpayers to give them an idea of the range of impact on their taxes. For example, he said, if the budget passes and all of the overrides fail, the tax rate would increase by 2.8 percent. If all of the override questions pass except the OPEB liability, the tax rate would increase by 4.2 percent, and if the OPEB liability passes, by 13.6 percent.
