Resident homeowners in Tisbury will continue to pay a lower property tax than owners who live primarily off-Island, after the select board voted 2-0 Oct. 28 to continue the residential exemption. Chair Christina Colarusso was absent.

While the residential tax rate will be $6.78 per $1,000 of assessed value, the exemption reduces year-round homeowners’ annual tax obligation by 22 per cent of the value of a median-priced home in Tisbury — a $2,773 reduction for a property of any size.

Tisbury’s median residential property value is now $1.3 million, treasurer Jonathan Snyder said, and the average home value has reached about $2 million.

“I’ve just been astonished by these values,” he said. 

“Since the pandemic, they started to just keep going up and up, which is part of what keeps our tax rate down into the $7 range. I was sure they’d be over $10 by now, but property values keep going up,” Mr. Snyder said.

The select board also voted to shift 8.45 per cent of the town’s $37 million tax levy away from residential properties.

“That [sets] the tax rate for commercial, industrial and personal property at $7.36 per $1,000,” Mr. Snyder said.

The total value of real estate and personal property in Tisbury is about $5.5 billion, nearly 92 per cent of it in residential property, Mr, Snyder told the select board.

The town has had a residential exemption in place for more than 10 years, raising it in 2022 from 18 per cent to 22 per cent to help relieve the tax impact of the $82 million Tisbury School project.

The exemption has been allowed in Massachusetts since 1979 and several Vineyard and Cape Cod towns use it to aid year-round homeowners.

Tisbury finance and advisory committee member Rachel Orr asked the select board to consider a future tax exemption for non-resident property owners who rent to year-round Islanders.

“I think it would be a wonderful incentive for us to offer for property owners to rent year round,” she said.

The landlord exemption would require town meeting approval and a successful home rule petition to the state legislature, Ms. Orr said.

“[State] Senator [Julian] Cyr is very experienced with this type of legislative action. He’s done it for towns on the Cape,” she said.

In other business before the select board, shellfish constable Danielle Ewart announced this season’s scalloping dates, which began Nov. 1 with recreational scalloping in Lagoon Pond, outside the ponds and in Vineyard Haven harbor. Commercial scalloping in the same areas began Nov. 3.

Lake Tashmoo’s season begins later this month, Nov. 22 for recreational scalloping and Nov. 24 for commercial scalloping, Ms. Ewart said.

Dragging for scallops is prohibited in Lake Tashmoo, the head of Lagoon Pond and inside the pond’s family area, which is marked with black buoys, Ms. Ewart said.