The board approved a 5 per cent residential exemption at its meeting Wednesday, allowing some of the property tax burden to shift onto owners of second homes and rental properties.
Commercial property owners in Tisbury will be getting bigger tax bills, after the select board voted Tuesday to shift 5 per cent of the town’s $40 million tax levy from residential to commercial real estate.
A pair of newly-discovered bookkeeping snafus have sent Tisbury officials scrambling to reduce a $1.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override vote at the annual town meeting May 28.
The residential exemption would lower the tax burden of West Tisbury town residents, but could result in higher bills for people who own second homes or rental properties in the town.
The Oak Bluffs select board voted last week to adopt a 15 per cent residential tax exemption for fiscal year 2024, lowering property taxes on homes that are a person’s primary residence.
While the average payment in West Tisbury would have increased around eight per cent on each bill if spread across all four quarters, residents had to contend with the entire year’s increase in just the final bill.
