Tisbury voters will be back at Tisbury School Wednesday night to complete their annual town meeting, which adjourned Tuesday after more than three and a half hours of discussion and decisions.
The bulk of the meeting was spent on the 26 articles relating to the special town meeting, with much of the annual town meeting articles still to be addressed Wednesday evening.
With more than 265 voters checking in, the meeting resoundingly defeated a select board effort to lift the town’s 75-night limit on short-term rentals, the only such restriction on Martha’s Vineyard.
Select board chair Roy Cutrer pressed for the change, saying it was the town’s only option for raising revenue without increasing property taxes.
“Do we want to say ‘no’ to tax revenue?” Mr. Cutrer asked.
James Tilton and James Zlabotny were among several voters who rebutted Mr. Cutrer’s argument.
“Tourism is not our only industry, [and] people owning houses they do not need is not something to base an economy on or to base a town on,” Mr. Tilton said.
“By following the logic of this select board, it would be beneficial for the town financially to have no permanent residents, because that way we can raise more money,” Mr. Zlabotny said.
While two other speakers backed the article, saying short-term rentals helped them afford to keep family homes in Tisbury, former select board member Tristan Israel lamented the decline of residential neighborhoods as vacation rentals continue to rise.
“To me, [the article] just sends a terrible message,” Mr. Israel said.
Voters backed the affordable housing committee’s property tax exemption program, which grants a property tax reduction to landlords renting to year-round Islanders through the Dukes County Regional Housing Agency.
The planning board asked to skip two articles it had proposed, essentially withdrawing both a bylaw amendment and a non-binding resolution that would have altered the town administrator’s authority over staff members reporting to elected boards.
Planning board chair Casey Hayward said the select and planning boards met jointly last week and agreed to work together to resolve the disagreement that prompted the articles.
“We believe this collaborative process is the right path forward, and we appreciate the select board’s willingness to engage,” Ms. Hayward said, reading from a statement.
Several other bylaw changes proposed by the planning board, for the most part to clarify existing policies and coordinate with state laws, sailed through without opposition.
An article seeking to define town rules for additional plumbing connections was amended from the floor by Nevin Sayre to specify that when a property owner adds plumbing to a garage or other non-residential accessory building, they must file a certificate with the Dukes County Registry of Deeds stating that the building will remain non-residential.
The town meeting will resume Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Tisbury School gymnasium.
This article appears in May 1, 2026.
Well, I do not own any short term rentals in Tisbury I do own a year-round rental. The 75 night cap doesn’t make any sense once it’s a short term rental whether it’s for 75 nights or for 175 nights it’s the same. Cutrer is correct revenue is being left on the table. The tax rate in Tisbury is so out of control. I will most likely have to shift from a year round rental to a short term rental in the next year. The tax rate and its continuing escalation makes it so I can’t afford to keep it as a year-round rental. It makes me sad but as it is, it cost me about $4000 a month out of pocket to own the property and rent it year-round
The lengthy discussion about the plumbing of an accessory structure was accompanied with some groaning. The first failed amendment to the article was followed by a second failed amendment, then a return to the first amendment, with an amendment to that (phew,) Which passed. There was a good result. Thanks to Ben Robinson and Nevin Sayre for their efforts.Although It can be a bit scary for people to get up at town meeting, there were some very good points made along the way on this one and the short term rental article. Now, as we face an island-wide vote on an expensive, and needed, high school project, I hope we can find some other sources of revenue. Can the ferry disembarkation fee be raised for us, the year round port for all of Martha’s Vineyard? Can the commercial tax rate, which is currently the same as the residential tax rate, be raised a bit? Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
The short term rental tax on the expanded nights comes 100% from Tourists. The other revenue streams that you mentioned would also impact local residents.
Should tourism be taxed?
The town of West Tisbury has a very good bylaw governing short term rentals, which Tisbury could adapt and adopt:
https://westtisbury-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/795/Wt-Short-Term-Rental-by-Law-PDF#:~:text=Short%2Dterm%20rentals%20are%20a%20permissible,1.
“Tourism is not our only industry” please tell me what is our industry???
“People owning houses they do not need.” What does that even mean? So there are plenty of people that own seasonal homes that they love. They love the Vineyard and often are part of the community (they also pay the majority of residential property taxes so they may not need their homes but we need them). Should we end vacation homeownership? Then you have folks who have bought homes for investment purposes. Now one can rightfully argue there is a downside to this given the housing shortage, but they do need their homes. They have invested quite a sum of money in them and they pay a lot of taxes (both property and STR taxes).
The other part of this article that concerns me is there is no mention of cutting costs as opposed to just constantly raising taxes. At what point are towns going to utilize AI as an effective way to pare back their budgets? AI is coming (actually it’s upon us) whether we like it or not. Best to embrace it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, folks better get used to significant yearly tax increases and annual overrides.
How can Tisbury be so dysfunctional without of control taxes. I own a little house in Edgartown I bought 40 years ago when I retired,the taxes are $2500 and that’s peanuts ,Edgartown has some of the wealthiest people in the world living in it. I am not one of them,but I would be willing to pay more than I pay if they raised it.Why is Tisbury so dysfunctional to have a tax rate way higher than any of the other towns here.I have a three decker in southie and the taxes are over $10,000 but I don’t care cause everyone else pays about the same for a similar house all over Boston.
“tourism is not our only industry”. enlighten me please. what other industry are we?
Tourism is not our only industry. Traditionally, one of the largest industries has been providing goods and services to long term summer visitors and second home owners, who are not tourists, and the people who live here all year. While there has always been a seasonal churn of day trippers and short term visitors, this has been greatly accelerated recently. As the island economy tilts toward the latter, living here becomes less desirable for the long term summer population, and less tenable for working year ’round islanders.