Oak Bluffs and Tisbury will ask the state legislature to triple their towns’ embarkation fees, joining forces in a pitch to increase money collected on ferry tickets.

Port town coffers are helped thanks to 50-cent ferry embarkation fee. Money is used for everything from summer traffic cops to harbor dredging and public safety budgets.

Steamship Authority chairman Marc Hanover was not looking for
support from the Dukes County Commission Wednesday in his continuing
battle with the Tisbury board of selectmen over ferry fee money. But he
got it anyway.

Sparking a fresh war of words between the Steamship Authority and
the town of Tisbury, the Vineyard boat line governor said yesterday he
may call for the state attorney general to look into how the town plans
to use its ferry fee revenues.

The town of Tisbury collected $240,000 from the 50-cent levy paid by most passengers on ferry tickets last year and an embarkation fee committee, formed this year in response to controversy over past spending ideas, is in the process of developing final recommendations for where the money should go.

The committee will take its decisions back to the selectmen who will have final sign-off ahead of the annual town meeting in April.