The Edgartown selectmen are threatening to withdraw from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission amid ongoing complaints about whether the town is paying more than its fair share of the commission’s annual budget.

James Joyce, the town’s appointed representative to the commission, told selectmen at their weekly meeting on Monday that the town should pull out of the commission until the formula used to calculate the assessments to the six towns is changed. The formula is based on equalized property valuations. The town’s projected MVC assessment for the upcoming fiscal year is $302,674.

“It’s time we think about getting out of the commission only because we can’t afford it,” Mr. Joyce said. “We fund the commission . . . I just don’t think we’re being treated fairly up there.”

The commission was established by an act of the state legislature in 1974; the assessment formula is set by statute. As the largest among the six towns in terms of both geography and property values, Edgartown pays the largest annual assessment to the commission, followed by Chilmark.

Mr. Joyce said he believed a formula that was half based on equalized valuations and half based on population would be more equitable. And to achieve that goal, he suggested a stick rather than a carrot.

“How do we go about trying to correct that? It might be best to try and get out of the commission; it’d be easier to force them to do something,” Mr. Joyce said, adding that the other towns probably would not want the formula to change because it would mean they would have to pay more.

All three selectmen said the idea sounded good to them.

“Maybe Jim’s concept is a good idea to approach it. I agree with him,” said selectman Arthur Smadbeck said. “That may be the only approach.” Chairman Margaret Serpa agreed that “sending a strong message” may be the way to go.

“The residents of Edgartown, they want protection of the commission, that’s why we’re there,” selectman Michael Donaroma said. “Right now things are slow and we have good protection in our own government. Taking a break, there’s no fear to not have their protection . . . This would be the time to seriously think about it.”

Edgartown currently has two development projects under review by the commission, one to expand the Wave Lengths salon on Upper Main street and subdivision for the Chasin property on Chappaquiddick.

Mr. Joyce also criticized the commission’s draft budget which proposes a 4.5 per cent pay increase for commission staff, two per cent based on merit and two and a half per cent for a cost of living adjustment.

Edgartown’s complaints about the commission’s budget are not new. A year and a half ago the selectmen, unhappy with the commission’s budget, singled out the town assessment as an override question on the annual town ballot. Since the assessment was mandatory, the move was painted as a symbolic gesture, but it later caused headaches when it turned out that money to pay the assessment had not been set aside in the town budget. A special town meeting was required to correct the problem.

And Edgartown has a long and sometimes stormy history when it comes to leaving the commission. In 1978 the town withdrew after a bitter fight over the rules surrounding districts of critical planning concern (DCPCs). By 1984 old wounds had healed and political landscapes had changed and the town rejoined the regional land use commission again.

MVC executive director Mark London said this week that he hopes the selectmen do not follow through on the threat.

“The commission is in many ways an insurance policy for the whole Island,” Mr. London said in a telephone interview. “The commission has regulatory authority that goes well beyond what the towns can do. It’s had a lot to do with keeping Martha’s Vineyard the way it is today . . . It’s not only the projects that the commission has dealt with, but the projects that never see the light of day because they know they would have to go through the commission process.”

Mr. London said the commission budget is in a very early draft stage and final assessment numbers will likely not be available until January.

But Mr. Joyce held fast to his idea.

“If we get out of the commission and they restructure the payment plan so it’s more equitable, then we’ll gladly go back in,” he said after the meeting. “I just don’t see any other way. We can’t afford to keep paying the lion’s share of the commissions cost. It has to stop somewhere.”

He concluded: “I don’t want to be out of the commission and they’re good for the Island . . . but this seems like the quicker process for us to get out and come back in under better terms, rather than change the charter.”