Tisbury Faces $17.6 Million Budget

By MAX HART

No overrides. No surprises. No worries?

That seems to be the general consensus regarding Tisbury's
nearly $17.6 million operating budget for the fiscal year starting July
1. Abating insurance costs, stabilized debt payments and a little help
from Tisbury's embarkation fee funds all helped keep the budget to
a manageable 5.3 per cent increase over last year.

The annual town meeting is scheduled for April 4.

"We have stayed pretty lean and mean," said George
Balco, Tisbury finance and advisory committee chairman. "There
really is not a lot of fat here."

As in almost every town, education represents the bulk of the
budget.

The Tisbury School budget increased 2.5 per cent from last year to
nearly $3.78 million. Combined with the superintendent's office
budget of $539,638, the total school budget is roughly $4.32 million
- a three per cent increase from last year's appropriation.

"The one thing that stands out is the high school assessment,
but that is only because we have more students going into the high
school," Mr. Balco said. "You can't do much about
increasing pupil counts."

In fact, Tisbury's share of the high school budget rose to
nearly $2.5 million - $243,194 more than last year's
assessment, a 10 per cent spike.

The finance committee has endorsed the school budget - a shift
from last year when committee members, citing unnecessary increases,
openly disputed the figures on the town meeting floor.

One factor that has helped to keep operating expenses down is the
ferry embarkation fee revenue, which totals more than $275,000 this
year. The revenue stems from a 50-cent surcharge that is tacked onto the
price of each one-way passenger ticket on ferries that ply the routes
between the Cape and Islands. It is collected by the ferry operators and
paid to the town where the trip originated.

Spending of the money is subject to approval on town meeting floor;
state legislation also mandates that it be spent on public safety,
harbor services and port infrastructure improvements.

In Vineyard Haven this year, voters will be asked to put the money
toward two new police cruisers, a traffic officer dedicated to the area
around Water and Union streets, new outboard motors for the harbor
master's boat and the renovation of an old police truck for use as
the ambulance department's paramedic transport vehicle.

While most of these likely would be considered capital expenditures
and hence not be reflected in the operating budget, Mr. Balco said in
the future embarkation fee money could go toward reducing other line
items, such as the town's debt and interest payments.

"With the legislation's focus on safety, I would think
you could take some of that money and put it toward the bond on the new
fire truck, which would reflect a decrease in the budget," he
said. "Having that money certainly has been helpful."

Debt and interest remains at $1.05 million, while the assessment to
the Martha's Vineyard Commission fell from $110,543 to $104,233.

Insurance costs, which have risen steeply in recent years, settled a
bit this year. After rising 21 per cent from fiscal year 2005 to fiscal
year 2006, costs are only up nine per cent.

"A majority of the increases in most department budgets
reflect normal increases in salary costs, but that happens every
year," Mr. Balco said. "Beyond that, costs are pretty well
under control."