A first-time rooms tax, increased protection for the Mill Brook watershed and a change of day for the annual town meeting are all set to come before West Tisbury voters next week. The annual town meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the West Tisbury School gymnasium. There are 62 articles on the warrant. Moderator Dan Waters will preside.

Voters will take action on a $19.3 million annual town budget, up from $18.9 million last year. They also will be asked to approve nearly $715,000 in individual spending articles, up from last year’s total of $560,000. The budget is unanimously recommended by the town finance committee.

Town administrator Jennifer Rand said the adoption of a six per cent local rooms excise tax aims to boost town revenue as yearly expenses continue to grow. Last year, the town saw a $400,000 budget override, the first Proposition 2 1/2 override since 2004.

“We don’t have many sources of revenue. We now have an opportunity to legitimately increase revenue in the community to the benefit of taxpayers,” Ms. Rand said.

West Tisbury is the only Island town that had not previously adopted a rooms tax, as allowed under state law. Passage of the short-term rental tax law early this year fueled fresh discussion about adopting a tax.

The six per cent tax would be in addition to the 5.7 per cent short-term rental tax set to take effect July 1.

Town accountant Bruce Stone said the finance committee agreed that the rooms tax could help lighten the burden of property taxes that currently make up 88 per cent of the town’s revenue.

“We felt that if the town really wanted to offset property taxes, this is about the only opportunity,” he said.

Two related articles call for using the funds collected from the occupancy tax to create stabilization funds for road work and vehicle expenses. Ms. Rand said voters can choose to designate the funds for other purposes in future town meetings.

“The intent is to put money away so that when we need these things, we don’t hit the taxpayers,” said Ms. Rand.

As in every other Island town, a pair of petitioned articles seek approval for a home rule petition to the state legislature that would create a housing bank funded by 50 per cent of the short term rental tax. West Tisbury selectmen have not formally endorsed or opposed the proposal. The finance committee voted 3-2 to recommend both housing bank articles.

Voters will be asked to adopt a new town bylaw that prohibits pumping water from town waterways except by permit. A long-running study of the 2,460-acre Mill Brook watershed completed last year found that withdrawals, which occur most often at Scotchman’s Bridge Lane, have caused water levels to drop and the water temperature to rise, threatening the river system’s rare and vulnerable species.

“We’ve had landscape trucks pull up to Scotchman’s Pond and throw hoses right in the water,” said Tara Whiting, chairman of the conservation commission.

The new bylaw stipulates that water can only be withdrawn with a permit from the town conservation commission. Violations would be punishable by fines that begin at $100 and increase for subsequent infractions.

In a related article, voters will be asked to approve $40,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to pay for the first year of the two-year Mill Brook watershed management plan.

An article calling for future town meetings to be moved to the second Saturday of April starting at 10 a.m. is on the warrant by petition. Marc Rosenbaum was the lead petitioner. The change would make West Tisbury the only Island town to hold its annual town meeting on a weekend and in the morning.

“I think there will be some back and forth about it,” said Ms. Rand.

The town is also seeking approval to use funds from the Cape and Islands premium license plate program to expand programs in the town shellfish department. Originally collected by Dukes County, $150,000 in license plate rev

enue was returned to each town in late 2017 when it was discovered that the county was not spending enough of the funds on economic development and tourism, as required by law. Ms. Rand said the $26,675 would be used to hire a shellfish agent and buy equipment.

“The board of selectmen felt that shellfish beds are both a tourism and economic driver in this town,” she said.

School spending makes up the majority of the town budget this year, with voters being asked to pay $7.6 million for the town’s share of the up-Island regional school district and regional high school budgets combined. Five articles are requesting $204,000 to go toward Chilmark School upkeep and design costs for new windows, roofing and flooring.

Affordable housing is a major theme on the warrant, with voters being asked to approve four articles totaling nearly $252,655 in CPA funds for housing projects and rental assistance. Two articles ask the town to help fund regional housing developments: $50,000 would go toward a planned addition at the Aidylberg elderly housing complex in Oak Bluffs, while $43,000 would go to Harbor Homes of Martha’s Vineyard to acquire future housing for homeless residents. Another article seeks to set aside $62,000 to pay off borrowing related to the Scott’s Grove housing complex in West Tisbury that opened last fall.

The town is also asking for $90,500 to upgrade ailing hardware, including replacing the telephone system in town buildings. Ms. Rand said the total cost of a new phone system is $120,000; voters will be asked to approve $60,000 this year and the rest at next year’s town meeting. Voters will also be asked to spend $23,500 on new permitting software and $7,000 on a new voting machine.

“You reach a point where all the things we paid good, hard-earned money for are obsolete. If we have a problem, we’re doomed,” Ms. Rand said.

Voters will also have a say in where recreational cannabis can be sold and grown. A proposed zoning bylaw amendment would allow retail sales and cultivation at the airport business park by special permit from the town zoning board of appeals. The article is by petition from Geoff Rose, the owner of Patient Centric of Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Rose plans to open a medical marijuana dispensary on State Road in West Tisbury; his medical marijuana grow facility off Old Stage Road is nearing completion.

Voters will be asked to spend $39,000 for the town’s share of regional health services administered through the county, a five per cent increase over last year. Two other county articles seek nearly $40,000 to fund county other post-employment benefits and help pay off a bond used to purchase the Center for Living building in Vineyard Haven.

The finance committee voted to recommend most articles on the warrant, but notably did not recommend two: one to contribute $10,000 to ACE MV, the Islandwide adult education program, and another to contribute $14,280 to the Youth Task Force, an Island organization dedicated to preventing substance use among young people. Ms. Rand said language in the articles doesn’t require each town to pay an equal share, and she expects the articles to be amended on the town meeting floor.

At the annual town election next Thursday, the only contest is a three-way race for two seats on the finance committee. Incumbent Doug Ruskin, along with challengers Joe Gervais and Clark Rattet are all running.

Cynthia Mitchell is running unopposed for a new three-year term as selectman.

Polls are open Thursday, April 11 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the West Tisbury public safety building.