When Tisbury voters convene for their annual town meeting on Tuesday, they will consider a town budget cut for economically difficult times.

Sure, the bottom line will be an increase of almost $450,000 or five per cent, but almost all that increase is attributable to two items, debt servicing cost and the town’s contribution to the regional high school. Take those out of the equation, said finance director Tim McLean, and the cost of everything else has increased by almost nothing.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the elementary school gymnasium.

Debt servicing is the big lump in this year’s budget, up some 50 per cent from $1.2 to $1.8 million as a result of borrowing to fund the new $7 million emergency services building. It will continue to inflate the town’s debt servicing costs for another two years, too, before its impact is negated by the roll-off of other town debt.

On the upside, the town got the money at extraordinarily low interest rates.

The other major increase was about $150,000, or 5.5 per cent, in the contribution to the regional high school. As Mr. McLean explained, that was something outside the town’s control.

It wasn’t even that the high school budget went up, he said. “It’s just that when they did the apportionments to the towns, a couple of other towns had fewer students. So our percentage went up slightly.

“When we take out our debt increase, and the increased contribution to the regional high school contribution which are the biggest parts of the increase in the budget we’re almost flat,” he said, adding:

“Up by three-quarters of one per cent, which is pretty small.”

Town departments, he said “really held the line” on costs.

The meeting warrant also includes six ballot questions which will be voted on April 27. Five relate to Proposition 2 1/2 overrides. By far the largest is to assess an additional $225,000 in taxes to fund pay raises under a new contract with the police union.

In all, the overrides total $460,000. If all pass, it will result in property tax rates increasing by 18 cents for every $100,000.

The good news is, one of the warrant articles requests the transfer of $850,000 from the town’s unreserved fund balance, or free cash, which Mr. McLean said would reduce the tax rate by 34 cents per $100,000 of property value.

The sixth ballot question relates to the vexing issue of beer and wine sales in Tisbury restaurants. But that will only be a ballot question and not an item for debate at the meeting.

The warrant contains 41 articles.

Perhaps the greatest interest, given the recent crisis in affordable housing on the Island, will be the various proposed coping measures.

Article 20, which deals with the disbursement of Community Preservation Act revenues, includes a proposal to transfer $144,000 to fund the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority rental subsidy program.

Another $100,000 of CPA funds would be used to partly fund the Island Affordable Housing Fund’s Lake Street housing project.

Article 19 proposes the establishment of a new town affordable housing trust fund. And article 36 seeks the transfer of $10,000 remaining from the sale of the Lake street apartments into that fund.

The police department continues to be expensive. Apart from a 1.6 per cent increase, to $1.31 million in their regular operating budget, the police seek extras including $225,000 to pay increased wages, $10,000 extra to hire and train officers, $50,000 from the ferry fee fund to train, equip and pay four or more seasonal police officers, and another $4,000 for the lease of a Harley Davidson police motorcycle, $31,000 for a new police car and $2,500 for a tactical response team.

Among the more unusual articles is a request for $15,000 to fund a study into the town’s organizational structure. There is also a request for $3,604 to pay the town’s share of a county-wide reverse 911 system through which town residents can be contacted in the case of emergency.

And there is one to pay the $3,000 cost of removing several trees, planted by the Payette family at the head of Lake Tashmoo, which had obscured one of the Island’s finest views.

There is also an article seeking $35,000 to pay for the triennial certification of real estate, as required by the state.

Article 26 seeks approval for a land swap between the town and the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, with the aim of providing a better public swimming area.