LISBON — A town councilor vowed Monday night to continue fighting an excise tax bill from the town that resulted from an error at the town office.

Councilors voted 3-2 last Tuesday to authorize Town Manager Steve Eldridge to withhold $138.16 from Councilor Roger Cote's stipend to cover the excise tax bill on his truck.

Cote recused himself from voting to avoid a conflict, but asked to speak as a citizen on the issue and was allowed to.

He explained in a phone interview Monday night that he bought a new pickup truck in the spring of 2009 and sold his 2007 vehicle. At that time, he transferred his registration from the older vehicle to the newer one, since it was still good for six months. He also paid the difference in the excise tax, since the tax for 2007 truck was lower than the tax for the newer one.

In early 2010, he went to re-register the 2009 vehicle. He received the registration, but, "I didn't look at it, just put it in the glove box," he said.

In mid-2010, he took the truck to a dealer for inspection. The dealer told him they couldn't inspect the vehicle, because the registration was for the 2007 vehicle he had sold a year earlier, according to Cote. The town had pulled up the previous vehicle's information from the computerized records, he said.

Cote returned to the Town Office and discussed the registration mix-up with town officials. They issued a new registration for the 2009 truck and validated it, indicating that all financial obligations had been met, Cote said.

A month later, Cote received a letter from the town stating that he again owed $138.16, the difference between the excise tax of a 2007 truck and a 2009 truck.

He told the council that he didn't feel he owed the tax, because he had paid for a registration in early 2010 and was given a document for a vehicle that he did not actually own. "I was very upset. The town office had made the error. They had re-registered the 2007 truck and put me on the road with illegal plates. I could have gotten in a lot of trouble if I had taken it out of state," he said.

Cote said he called state officials but no one knew what to do about it. When he went back to the town office to re-register his truck this year, he was told he couldn't register it until he had paid the difference in the 2010 excise tax.

He presented one check for the difference of two vehicles' excise tax for 2010 and a second one for the current registration, he said. Cote said he then placed a second call to the state but still didn't feel he owed the money and placed a stop-payment order on his check for the last year's tax.

At the council meeting Tuesday, Eldridge, who is also tax collector and treasurer, pointed out it was a mistake when Cote was not charged the excise tax last year. Receipts are balanced at the end of each day, he added, and when a mistake is found, officials rectify it, he said.

Part of the issue was Cote's decision to stop payment on the check.

Town attorney Roger Therriault referenced two sections in state law — one establishing the obligation of the tax collector to collect taxes, and the other permitting municipal officers to authorize withholding the amount owed the town out of any money that is due and payable to the taxpayer.

"I think the whole thing was petty," and the town should have dropped the matter long ago, Cote said Monday night.