Faced with a 37-article warrant including the perennially contentious issue of beer and wine sales, and a raft of potential tax increases totaling almost $1.8 million, Tisbury voters are looking at a marathon town meeting beginning on Tuesday night.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Tisbury School gymnasium; moderator Deborah Medders will preside.

The magnitude and complexity of the financial issues that will come before those who attend the meeting is such that, if all the proposed spending increases went through, taxes would have to increase 13.6 per cent, or more than $400 per year on a $500,000 property.

The biggest single item is a proposal to put aside just over $1.5 million this year — and every year for the next 30 years — to meet the town’s currently unfunded liabilities for the post-retirement benefits of town employees.

The benefits relate mostly to the ongoing health care costs of retired employees, their spouses and dependents.

But there is a long list of other proposed expenditures: $50,000 to identify and survey potential leaching areas for wastewater; $80,000 for dredging in the inner harbor and Lake Tashmoo; $25,000 to fund an ongoing, short-term disability program; $30,000 to convert the former DPW site on Spring street to take overflow parking from the school; and $40,000 to repair and repaint the outside of the library.

Tisbury voters have shown themselves ready to spend at town meetings over the past couple of years, but there is a real question about whether they will continue in that mood, given the financial circumstances of the moment.

Tisbury finance director, treasurer and tax collector Tim McLean acknowledged yesterday that the town was facing some very tough, and probably very time-consuming deliberations, particularly in relation to the money for unfunded liabilities (known as OPEB, for other post-employment benefits).

He predicted a long town meeting.

“I think it definitely won’t be one night. I just hope it’s not three,” Mr. McLean said.

Even crunching all the numbers was challenging.

“I did three scenarios for the selectmen. I did one assuming no overrides passing. I did one with everything passing, except that huge, million-and-a-half OPEB question. And I did one assuming everything passed,” he said.

“Had I done one for every possibility, there would have been too many scenarios. You know, if these two pass and this one fails, or these other three pass and this one fails, and so on. But I would have had a spreadsheet so wide it would have boggled everyone’s minds.”

He detailed the three scenarios he had presented.

“Under the first,” he said, “where none of the overrides passed, the tax rate would go up 17 cents per $1,000 or 2.8 per cent. That is, from $5.98 to $6.15.

“Assuming all the other overrides pass except the OPEB, the total [expenditure] is $225,000, and the tax would go up a total of 25 cents, an additional eight cents over that first number. That would be a 4.2 per cent increase.

“And then if everything, including the $1.566 million for OPED, were to pass, the tax rate would go up 81 cents or 13.6 per cent.

“You can see why I pulled that one out separately, because that is a big, big number,” Mr. McLean said.

Originally, the plan was to include a smaller amount to begin funding the OPEB liabilities; the big figure was included largely due to the persuasion of one member of the Tisbury finance committee, Jon Snyder, who argues that even if townspeople opt to amend the number down on the floor of the meeting, at least they will be cognizant of the magnitude of the unfunded liability problem.

Mr. Snyder will make a presentation to the meeting explaining the issue in detail.

As if the financial considerations were not problem enough to occupy the meeting, there is also the issue of beer and wine sales in Tisbury restaurants to consider.

The history of the issue is long and contentious, beginning in 2005, when the Tisbury Business Association first advocated beer and wine sales in restaurants. It finally came to a town vote last year.

The first vote count recorded a tied vote, 690 votes each way. A recount saw the proposal defeated by just two votes, 692 to 690.

Undaunted, a group of alcohol sales proponents, selectman Jeff Kristal among them, lodged a petition to have an article put on the warrant for this meeting, to start the complex process all over again.

If voters approve, the selectmen will file a home rule petition with the state legislature. If the state approves, the issue will come back for a vote of the town at next year’s annual town election.

The beer and wine question has already generated considerable heat, even before coming before the voters at this early stage again.

In January a petition was filed to have an article included on the warrant. Then Mr. Kristal moved that the selectmen should take over sponsorship of the article themselves.

The board voted 2-1 to do this, with Mr. Kristal and Denys Wortman in favor, and Tristan Israel against.

But two weeks later, in the face of legal questions and sharp criticism of their actions, the selectmen reversed their vote. Thus the article will appear on the warrant as having been submitted by petition, and not by the selectmen.

The issue also split the town financial advisory committee, which voted 5-2 against taking any position on the matter. The resurrected proposal already has brought a rash of letters to the editor.

And only last week, it resulted in sharp words at the selectmen’s meeting when Tisbury harbor master Jay Wilbur said he would need to double his budget if the beer and wine proposal went through, in order to be able to police drunkenness on the harbor.

Mr. Wilbur was sharply rebuked by Mr. Kristal for his predictions of drownings and an influx of cigarette boats from the mainland carrying drinkers.

The stage is clearly set for debate.

The Tisbury annual town election will be held on April 28.