Aquinnah residents head to the polls next week in the latest attempt by selectmen to override the state-mandated tax cap and ease the town's financial crisis.

At a special town election Thursday residents will vote whether to approve a Proposition 2 1/2 override request. The override request - the third since the beginning of the summer - comes in conjunction with a $103,000 supplemental budget, approved at special town meeting in late September.

The election will be held Oct. 28 from noon to 8 p.m. at Aquinnah town hall.

This time around the Aquinnah selectmen changed the way the general override request appears on the ballot. Rather than consider an override for a single lump sum, residents will vote yes or no on each of 12 funding requests.

"I'm hoping all of the items pass, not just a few of them," selectman Jim Newman said yesterday. "I think it's a good system. It spells out each item in the budget and where we need money. The town passed these measures at the special town meeting, so you might assume they would vote in favor of them. But when the town has gone back to the polls for the previous two votes, they have had a different idea. So we'll have to see."

The latest supplemental budget was stripped down from an initial $260,000 override request in May. The funding would cover cost of living increases for town employees and restore a number of other cuts that were necessary to balance the budget earlier this year.

Thirty-six per cent of the overall request, $36,967, is earmarked for town employee wages. Other line items include $20,000 in funding for the Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group; $10,000 to pay legal bills; $6,000 for community programs, and $5,000 for expenses incurred in maintenance of town buildings.

Mr. Newman added that efforts to work with the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to raise revenue by procuring tribal funds, a sensitive issue within the town, are progressing but should not be counted on in the immediate future.

"Finding new revenue is not something that happens overnight," he said. "We are active with the tribe in trying to find new sources, and we are moving forward."

But critics of the override are frustrated with the pace of such efforts, and are calling for the defeat of the override.

In a letter to both Island newspapers, planning board member Peter Temple argued that an override leading to a significant hike in taxes is unacceptable and urged voters to reject the selectmen's latest proposal.

"The selectmen feel $103,00 is a ‘reasonable' amount for an override and emphasized at town meeting it would be a ‘small' increase in our taxes; just 28 cents per $100,000 of valuation. That's misleading: 28 cents is a six per cent increase over the $4.63 tax rate for 2004 and $103,000 represents a permanent tax increase of 6 percent over the 2004 levy limit," Mr. Temple wrote.

"I don't find an additional six per cent increase reasonable," he concluded.

At the regular board meeting Tuesday, the selectmen reacted unhappily to Mr. Temple's claims. The letter was plagued with mistakes and outright lies, board chairman Carl Widdiss said.

"I wanted to discuss the letter and clear up some of the inaccuracies in it, but the person who wrote it chose not to show up to this meeting," Mr. Widdiss said, referring to Mr. Temple.

"I think some of the accusations in the letter are disturbing, and the inaccuracies are serious," he said.

Mr. Temple has been a vocal critic of the fiscal management in Aquinnah and has urged town officials to find new sources of revenue.

In response to Mr. Temple, Mr. Newman wrote a letter that addresses the perceived inaccuracies. The letter appears on Page Eleven of today's Gazette.

"Suggesting that all 12 items can be defeated is irresponsible and counterproductive," Mr. Newman wrote. "The residents of Aquinnah will be better served if they approve the budget and help us move forward."