West Tisbury faces cavernous gap in annual budget

West Tisbury residents are set to take up a 56-article warrant at the annual town meeting this April, and decide whether or not to override a state law and allow increased property taxes to fund the town’s annual operational budget.

The meeting is scheduled for April 14 at the West Tisbury School on Old County Road at 7 pm. Two days later, at the West Tisbury Public Safety Building (North Tisbury Fire Station), voters head to the polls for the town election and to vote on the official ballot between 7 am and 8 pm.

A special town meeting is planned before the annual meeting to discuss two warrants from the county — funds for the installation of a new handicap ramp at the Dukes County Health Care Access Building, and repairs at the Dukes County Courthouse — that were omitted from the original warrant. 

There are two questions on the ballot that serve as the most necessary requests made to voters, and failure to pass them, town officials said, would seriously hamper the town’s ability to provide regular services. One question asks that residents allow West Tisbury to override the state law Proposition 2½, which limits property tax increases, to fill out the $3.491 million needed to fund the town’s annual operating budget; the budget is $31.6 million for fiscal year 2027. In a separate override, the town seeks $2 million to repair or replace the HVAC system and other associated costs for the West Tisbury Police Department. A two-thirds vote is required.

“Without the override, we cannot reach the budget we have presented,” Jennifer Rand, West Tisbury town administrator, said. She added that the West Tisbury Police Department is in constant need of repair: “It’s just not thriving.”

Other articles in the warrant include that West Tisbury officials want to consolidate employees into a Department of Municipal Finance, which would include the office and functions of the town accountant, treasurer, human resources, and payroll. Each department is currently siloed, Rand said.

The town also needs $104,000 to contract a licensed site professional to address state-mandated PFAS tracking and removal in the town for the rest of the current fiscal year. The state-mandated work isn’t new, but the funds previously used from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act have run out.

“We had budgeted for this fiscal year what we needed, we thought. And then there was a second site identified that the state requires we immediately take action on,” Rand said about the fire station on West Tisbury Road and the closed landfill. The article listed in the warrant would pay for the licensed professional until July 1, but for the next fiscal year, there’s a line item in the budget that would get the town through June 30 of the next year. That will cost half a million dollars.

Unspent funds for a full renovation of the up-Island senior center, Howes House, which is at least delayed, are now being asked to be used for small renovations to improve accessibility. 

“We tried for quite a while to bring that forward, and just hit a number of roadblocks. And a decision was made to start over with, first doing a strategic plan, re-energizing the appointed board, and doing a strategic plan that would then inform the next steps,” Rand said. The unspent $50,000, voted on in April 2022, if approved, would keep the center inhabitable until a complete renovation is carried out.

Housing also takes up a few articles in this year’s warrant. West Tisbury wants to participate in the Lease to Locals pilot program, which is up and running in Chilmark, and requests $250,000. The program offers incentive payments to property owners to make their housing units available as year-round rentals for West Tisbury residents rather than short-term rentals or units left vacant.

Additionally, town officials propose that half of the funds from the rooms excise tax go to a stabilization fund only used for housing-related purposes in the town. Currently, excise tax monies go to the general fund.

There is also an article that asks voters to raise what’s considered to be affordable housing in the town as up to 180 percent of the county’s median income, which Rand said would help people who make too much money to qualify for affordable housing units but don’t earn enough to purchase a home on the Island.

Several municipal vehicles also need to be replaced, including a truck for the animal control officer, which will cost $85,000. Currently, Rand said, the truck used by animal control is “well past its healthy life” and is “in terrible condition.” Also, there is a request for $125,000 to go into the “Fire Truck Stabilization Fund,” which eventually can help pay for the next purchase of a truck. Fire trucks go for about half a million dollars, and in order to prevent the town from an excessively large payment in one year, Rand said they try to “scurry money away every year in smaller bites.”

There are also several zoning-change requests (Articles 16 through 22), and many articles to approve funds for the town’s shares in county programs. Rand said the town was also asked to include an article for $70,000 for the acquisition and installation of a rapid food-waste recycler for public use.

The most imperative part of the warrant for Rand is the passage of the overrides. The state law that limits how much property tax revenue the town can raise each year “doesn’t come close to keeping up with inflation,” Rand said. She added that this isn’t unique and is felt by towns all over the state. For years, she said, the town of West Tisbury has budgeted as tightly as possible, but that means they bump against the levy limit a lot. 

“If the override passes, we carry on with the programs and services that we provide without interruption. If it fails, we’re going to have some work to do, because we don’t have a budget. If it fails, we don’t have a budget,” she said. 

If the budget, which is needed by July 1, isn’t approved, the town will need to figure out where cuts could be made.

“How do we find $3.5 million in our budget that we can live without, when we have asked for the money because we believe we can’t live without it?”