The top-to-bottom review of charitable organizations by the Tisbury assessors seems to be scraping the very bottom of the barrel looking for reasons not to continue the tax-exempt status of the Vineyard Playhouse, Sail MV, the Montessori School, Hospice and the MV Center for Living.

When tax assessors are the sole arbiters of what merits and what doesn’t merit a qualification of “benevolent” use and what constitutes “education”, I think we can expect the worst. Your decision regarding the above-named organizations is clear proof of that.

Dramatic theatre, art, education, literacy, caring for the elderly, the sick and the dying are things all members of a community derive a benefit from either directly or indirectly. Vineyarders should be deeply thankful for, as well as proud of, these organizations and how they enrich the community as a whole.

Your inability to grasp that and how it fails to fulfill the legal definition that supposedly guides you speaks volumes. Not being able to provide the minutes of your meetings in a timely fashion doesn’t reflect well on your abilities either.

Robert Skydell

Granada, Nicaragua