The West Tisbury select board last week approved a controversial tax exemption that would give residents a break on their property tax bills. 

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. 

The vote was 2-1, with select board member Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter as the lone no vote. Such exemptions are allowed under state law; Tisbury and Oak Bluffs also have similar exemptions in place. 

The decision follows several meetings where year-round and seasonal residents debated the measure, with dozens of letters pouring in to town officials. At Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Manter struggled with the fairness of the exemption and the possible division it may create between year-round and seasonal residents. 

“Everybody assumes if you have a second home on the Vineyard you have lots of money and you can afford this,” he added. “If that was true, I’d be favorable, but there are many families that have a second home there that either second- or third-generation owned.” 

Select board vice chair Cynthia Mitchell pointed to the need for affordable housing as a reason she voted for the exemption. 

“The need for affordable housing is so acute,” she said. “On the Vineyard, we finally have kind of a tipping point in terms of strong advocacy and real maturity in advocacy. There are new tools, there’s a lot of energy, there’s a lot of organization behind the advocacy. To me, [this] spells more opportunity to really make a difference in affordable housing.” 

Towns can grant an exemption of up to 35 per cent of the town’s average residential value to properties that are the principal residence of the taxpayer. A new act passed earlier this year allowed the Vineyard to go up to 50 per cent. 

Under the new exemption, a resident with a property value of about $1.4 million, West Tisbury’s median residential value, would see their tax bill drop by $344, according to the town – from $6,473 to $6,130. For non-residents, the same property would go up by $87.

About 645 parcels in town have qualified for the exemption. 

Ms. Mitchell said that the town should consider the exemption annually.

“Going forward, now we know how to do this process, I think we should do this every year,” she said. “I think we should stay on top of it. We should hear from seasonal residents again about how this is affecting them.” 

Initially, select board chair Jessica Miller suggested a 10 per cent increase, which Ms. Mitchell was uncomfortable with. 

Other towns were also considering the matter. The Edgartown select board last week decided not to adopt any residential exemptions, although it will be assessing how the exemptions play out in Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury.

“[My recommendation] is to not have the vote-in for residential exemption for this year because we’re not really prepared” select board member Arthur Smadbeck said. “We don’t have the information that the assessors would need to generate in order for us to make an intelligent decision on this.”