Deep cuts to state funding for tourism marketing have prompted the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce to ask Vineyard towns to contribute tax dollars to establish an Islandwide tourism fund. Chamber members made the rounds in Edgartown, Chilmark, Aquinnah and West Tisbury this week, asking selectmen this week to back their appeal. They plan to visit Oak Bluffs and Tisbury next week with the same request.

Chamber executive director Nancy Gardella said state funding was cut by 66 per cent this year, resulting in a roughly $200,000 drop for the Vineyard chamber. She asked selectmen to consider contributing 20 per cent of the money their towns receive from the state rooms tax to make up the shortfall.

“We’re looking for level funding. We’re not looking to exceed that,” chamber board president James Carter told the Chilmark selectmen Tuesday night.

The plan was first presented at the all-Island selectmen’s meeting on Jan. 14. Mr. Carter said money dedicated to marketing tourism returns approximately $19 for every dollar invested. “It’s such a major generation of income for the commonwealth in general and the Island in particular,” he said during the Chilmark visit, adding that tourism is the main source of revenue for the Island. “We’ve built some great momentum . . . and all of a sudden that momentum [has] started to slip away from us. It could be devastating for us here on the Island.”

Chamber members said the money would be used only to market the Island as a tourist destination, not for chamber operating expenses.

Any contribution of rooms tax money would need town meeting approval.

Reaction from the selectmen was mixed, depending on which town you were in.

“It makes a lot of sense,” said Edgartown selectman Arthur Smadbeck on Monday.

But he also said the Edgartown warrant is closed for the annual town meeting in April, and that he would prefer to seek legal advice before agreeing to anything. “We have to send this over to Ron [Rappaport, town counsel] to find out how you would do that legally,” Mr. Smadbeck said. “This is unusual in that it would be taking public tax dollars and giving it to a private organization.”

Aquinnah selectmen said they would be willing to put an article on the annual town meeting warrant, but they noted that the town rooms tax collection is very low (there are only two inns in Aquinnah). Selectman Camille Rose suggested an alternative. “Has the chamber taken any position on the possibility of taxing rentals?” she asked.

Chamber board member Earle (Sandy) Ray said that might be a topic too hot to touch, since many of the more than 1,000 chamber members own rental homes.

Chilmark selectmen were more hesitant to back the idea. “I really need to think about this,” said selectman Frank M. Fenner Jr. “In Menemsha, there are times that you can’t move down there. Now we’re taking 20 per cent of our rooms tax and trying to encourage more. Where do you put them?”

Paul Watts, chamber board treasurer, pressed the case. Many of the people attracted to the Vineyard through tourism marketing end up falling in love with the Island and buying a summer home or a piece of property, he said. “I don’t think we’re trying to focus on clogging the Vineyard . . . These are people that are vibrant parts of our community,” Mr. Watts said. In the end, selectmen did agree to put the question to town voters. “I think that it’s a very reasonable proposal,” said chairman J.B. (Riggs) Parker. “I think it’s fair for us to take it to town meeting. In Chilmark we’re a residential community. We prefer long-term residents. We have summer residents who would like tourism to relax. But I think if this is an Islandwide effort, we can participate, and see what people say.”

But like the Edgartown selectmen, the Chilmark board also questioned the legality of using public money for private purposes. Chamber representatives agreed to contact the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce, which has established a similar fund.

In West Tisbury, where no local rooms tax money is collected because the town has not voted to adopt an optional increase in the tax, Ms. Gardella asked the selectmen to consider providing an amount comparable to Chilmark.

But selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter said the town is already struggling to pay for town services for year-round residents. Like Mr. Fenner in Chilmark, he too questioned the logic of spending money on marketing when the number of tourists already seems to increase each year.

“I think Martha’s Vineyard is marketed plenty enough already. I’m not sure we need more tourists, maybe we could use less. At what point do we say, enough is enough. We continue to encompass the expenses of all these tourists,” Mr. Manter said.

í í íHe said the Island already receives a good deal of free publicity.

“We already have prominent citizens across the Island who live here . . . we have people in the federal government who seem to like this place, and on regular occasions we get worldwide publicity from national media that we don’t have to pay for. I don’t think I need to dip into my wallet and use my tax dollars to attract any more people to come visit us,” he said.

Mr. Carter disagreed, saying the chamber has struggled for 20 years to promote the Vineyard on a limited budget, and requires additional funding to attract visitors.

In the end the West Tisbury selectmen agreed to put an article on the annual town meeting warrant.

Gazette reporter Jim Hickey contributed to this story.