Aquinnah Officials Ask for Public Input on How to Raise Revenues,
Hold Taxes

By JULIA WELLS

How to boost revenues without raising property taxes in the second
smallest town in the commonwealth - Aquinnah selectmen will tackle
the topic at a public meeting this week.

The selectmen voted to schedule the special session during their
regular board meeting last week.

"The selectmen have a number of ideas about how to enhance
revenues, both the short-term stuff and the long-term stuff, so
we'll see what comes out of it," said Aquinnah selectman and
board chairman Carl Widdiss yesterday.

The meeting is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the selectmen's
room in the Aquinnah town hall.

The meeting to talk about revenues has been under discussion for
several months.

The discussion took on more urgency this summer after a general
override to Proposition 2 1/2 was rejected twice by town voters at
separate special town elections.

The town will now operate on a shoestring budget for the remainder
of the fiscal year; among other things town employees will get no cost
of living raise and selectmen have forfeited their salaries.

On a related topic, Mr. Widdiss said the selectmen also turned their
attention to an old memorandum of understanding between the town and the
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Signed by the town selectmen and
tribal leaders in 1994, the agreement was aimed at softening the
financial impacts on the town from the tribal housing project.
Construction on the housing project was about to get under way when the
agreement was signed.

The agreement called for an advisory committee to be set up that
included one member of the Martha's Vineyard Commission, a
representative from the superintendent of schools and also the local
school committee.

The advisory committee was apparently never formed, and the
memorandum of understanding became a forgotten document.

The memorandum surfaced again this year when the town faced a budget
crisis after the first override failed at the ballot box.

Last week selectmen said they would reconstitute the advisory
committee and also revive the notion of finding some kind of outside
funding source to help defray municipal expenses, which are on the rise.
The bulk of the budget increase in Aquinnah this year can be tracked to
a jump in regional school assessments - the number of high school
students from Aquinnah went from nine to 16.

"We're going to reform the advisory committee and maybe
this will help to address some of the ongoing issues between the town
and the tribe," Mr. Widdiss said yesterday.

Aquinnah is home to the only federally recognized Indian tribe in
the commonwealth.

The tribe is involved in a much-watched court case over sovereign
immunity that began last year.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is now set to hear
arguments in the case on Sept. 8. The case will ultimately test the
strength of a historic 1983 land claims settlement agreement signed
between the town and the tribe.

Mr. Widdiss said Jim Newman, another selectman, will serve as the
board's appointed member of the advisory committee. The committee
will include a spokesman from the tribe, and Mr. Widdiss said letters
will be sent to the MVC and Vineyard schools superintendent Kriner Cash
inviting them to make appointments to the committee.

The decision to revive the advisory committee and heed the old
agreement was hailed by Peter Temple, a member of the town planning
board who regularly attends the selectmen's meetings.

"The selectmen have made a significant decision that can have
tremendous impact on the future of our town," Mr. Temple said,
adding: "We probably won't see any benefit for a year or
more, but by working together the town and the tribe can combine their
political clout and will hopefully get some changes made at the federal
and state levels that will permanently relieve the financial pressure on
the town."

Mr. Widdiss concurred. "I think it's a good thing
- any number of positive things can come out of this," he
said.

The first meeting of the committee has been scheduled for Sept. 15
in the selectmen's room in the town hall.