High property tax bills are raising eyebrows in West Tisbury, with some bills increasing by more than 30 per cent.

The rise coincides with the increase in property values in town and across the island, but the local bump is also inflated due to a quirk in the town’s tax assessment process.

Property tax payments are doled out in four bills annually, said West Tisbury assessor MacGregor Anderson. The first two are known as preliminary assessments, based on the previous year’s rates and property values. Increases are usually deferred to the latter two payments, but this year the entire increase was pushed onto the final quarter, resulting in the large jump.

The assessments are based on 2021 property sales, and since the change in value was so drastic – residential home values went up by 44 per cent – the town needed more time to verify the data.

“We wanted to spend more time with the assessed values,” said Mr. Anderson on the decision to defer.

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.

Those figures will likely come down in the next cycle, according to Mr. Anderson.

“Bills coming up will drop down quite a bit,” he said.

Properties across the Vineyard saw sharp rises in value since the pandemic. The median single-family home in West Tisbury increased from $904,800 to $1.3 million, and vacant land values increased by 59 per cent since the last fiscal year.

In Tisbury, the average residential property went from about $1 million to $1.4 million on the same timeframe and in Chilmark it went from $1.6 million to $1.87 million.

Pam Bunker, the Chilmark assistant assessor, said it’s something that has also popped up on the mainland.

“The entire state has gone up, not just the Island,” she said.

Like West Tisbury, which had its tax rate drop by 25 per cent, Chilmark, Aquinnah and Oak Bluffs all had decreases in tax rates with rising property values. Town assessors noted, however, an increase in tax bills was not a direct result of those rising values, but from of growing budgets.

“Tax rate is a function of budget and total value,” said Oak Bluffs principal assessor Kristina West.

Each year, the calculation of the tax levy is based on what money is needed for the budget and how much the town property is worth, after certain exemptions are factored in.

As towns take on some major projects, costs will continue to be factored into town budgets, and subsequently, tax bills.

“The town is not in the business of making money,” said Ann Marie Cywinski, the Tisbury assessor. “It’s all to cover the budget.”