Show them the money — that could well be the theme at the West Tisbury annual town meeting this year, where voters will take action on a variety of spending articles large and small, from a down payment on a new cruiser for the police department to the perennial wallet-busting item in the town that lies in the rural agricultural heart of the Vineyard: school spending.

The town finance committee is not recommending passage of the school budget this year.

“It’s a huge issue,” said selectman Cynthia Mitchell who is running unopposed for another term. “There is a sense that it’s out of control.”

The annual town meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of the West Tisbury School. Moderator Dan Waters will preside. There are 42 articles on the warrant. The annual town election is Thursday. There are no contested elections this year, but there is a single override question.

At the town meeting for the second year running, the town’s share of the up-Island regional school budget is expected to occupy considerable discussion. Total education spending in West Tisbury is projected at $9.8 million, up from $9.4 million last year and $8.9 million in 2015. The lion’s share of that money goes to the up-Island regional school district — West Tisbury voters are expected to spend $7.1 million for their share of educating children in two elementary schools that serve the three up-Island towns.

In a letter to the editor published in the Gazette, the West Tisbury finance committee sounds an alarm about rising town tax levies in general, and education spending in particular. “It is impossible to seriously discuss budget increases without addressing the issue of school costs which currently account for almost 65 per cent of the town tax levy,” finance committee chairman Greg Orcutt wrote. A committee analysis found that the West Tisbury share of budgets for the up-Island district and the high school has gone up more than 35 per cent since 2004. The committee predicts that in the next 10 years combined school budgets in the town could reach $13 million.

“I totally sympathize with the fincom’s position, it’s frustrating with these regional education budgets, we feel powerless to control them,”said Mrs. Mitchell, speaking to the Gazette by telephone this week. But she noted that unlike last year there will be no override question this year tied to the school budget, crediting the hard work of town finance leaders, including town accountant Bruce Stone and treasurer Kathy Logue. She also said there has been progress toward finding a more equitable solution thanks to the recent work of a special task force that studied the cost allocation issues in the up-Island district this year. The committee finished its report last week. “There are some pretty solid recommendations,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “And there was some good political sense. The selectmen [in the three towns] can now sit down with some consensus on the part of this committee that it is unfair and that West Tisbury is paying a disproportionate share. That’s a great place to start the discussion.”

The total town budget facing voters this year is $17.5 million. Only one Proposition 2 1/2 override request will come before voters in the ballot box at the election Thursday: a debt exemption question for a new $857,000 highway barn planned to be built at the town public safety complex in North Tisbury. An article to approve the new building appears on the warrant as well.

The highway barn project recently went out to bid and came in under budget. “It’s a very simple project,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “And it sort completes a plan we’ve had for some time to consolidate all the public safety buildings in one location.” The police, fire and ambulance departments are also housed at the site.

No decision has been made yet about what will happen to the old highway barn on Courthouse Road.

In other money requests, voters will be asked to spend $68,000 on a new dump truck for the town highway department, $60,000 to repair the roof at the Howes House, which serves as the town senior center, and $15,000 to put toward a future all-wheel drive police cruiser.

In Community Preservation Act articles, voters will be asked to spend $92,000 in CPC funds for the rental assistance program, and $100,000 to assist the Island Housing Trust in a $7.8 million affordable housing project at Kuehn’s Way. They also will be asked to spend $30,000 to help restore the chairs at the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle, a regional CPC spending project this year.

In another shared regional spending initiative, the town will be asked to contribute $14,000 to FirstStop, a new information and resource service for the elderly being developed by the Healthy Aging Task Force.

Nonspending regional requests on the West Tisbury warrant include the much-discussed plastic bag ban initiative backed by the Vineyard Conservation Society, and adoption of new federal flood maps.

A request for $160,000 to pay for the town’s share of an improvement project at the West Tisbury School playground is expected to be the subject of at least one amendment, as circumstances around the project have changed since the warrant was printed, Mrs. Mitchell said.

A zoning bylaw amendment that would clean up language and make other changes in the town’s special ways district of critical planning concern is expected to be postponed at the request of the planning board.

And there is one sleeper article — spending for the much-disputed town cemetery fence is back on the warrant this year, albeit in a smaller way.

Two years ago voters approved $75,000 to replace the picket fence around the old cemetery on State Road. Later when bids came in there was not enough money to do the whole job. At last year’s town meeting voters were asked to use the $75,000 to repair part of the fence, sparking passionate debate about whether the repairs — or a fence at all for that matter — are needed. In the end the article was rescinded.

An article on this year’s warrant seeks $45,000 for general repairs and maintenance on town buildings, “including, but not limited to, the Howes House dehumidifier, Station 1 air exchange, cemetery fence and other repairs.”

Mrs. Mitchell said the article is part of a larger move the town is making toward developing a general maintenance fund for town buildings and repairs.

“The cemetery fence — or part of it at least —is something that is crying out for repairs,” she said. “And I’m sure that will be talked about.”