Much to Norman Newell’s surprise and dismay when he went to register his newly purchased vehicle at the Durham Town Office last month, he learned that he would have to pay the excise tax.

Newell, who suffered back injuries in the Vietnam War, says he’s been classified 100 percent disabled since 1984. The Durham native said he got a wakeup call.

“I don’t ever remember paying excise tax,” Newell said last week. “I’ve never had to show them anything – just my 100 percent disabled, service-connected plates. We have new people at the Town Office and I was informed that I wasn’t exempt.”

Ruth Glaeser has been administrative assistant in Durham since last November, and Pam Cloutier has been tax collector/treasurer for two years.

Newell said that he wouldn’t have purchased the vehicle earlier this year had he known he would have to pay excise tax, which in his case amounts to $466. He has not been asked to pay for all his previous taxes, Newell said.

“I told them we never have had to pay this before and veterans are on a tight budget, and we weren’t able to pay this,” Newell said. “I have done research and the excise tax was set up for the towns to use for roads and other projects and I was informed that the towns can exempt excise taxes for certain veterans.”

But according to Dave Ledew, director of the property tax division for Maine Revenue Services, Newell is mistaken. Only certain disabled veterans – amputees and those who are blind – are exempt from paying excise taxes.

“He thought there was local discretion and I told him there wasn’t,” Ledew said. “I told him about the section on the amputees and the blind, and he said, ‘Oh, I’m only a Purple Heart.’”

Still, Newell is pursuing the matter. He met with state Rep. Paul Chase, R-Durham, to request legislation that would exempt 100 percent disabled and Purple Heart veterans from paying excise taxes.

Newell took shrapnel in the back in 1968. He only had two weeks left on his second tour of duty.

He said he doesn’t have the money yet to pay the excise tax, but is saving.

“It’s a lot of money when you’re on a fixed income,” he said. “I just bought a new car and if I had known I wouldn’t have bought it. I’m going to pay it, probably at the end of the month. I’m going to have to cut something out.”

Newell said he paid about $23,000 for a 2013 Ford Explorer. He has a special exemption to drive the car temporarily, and had to do so on May 11 for a doctor’s appointment in Togus.

Chace said he plans to introduce legislation, but probably not in this session of the Legislature.

“If he wants to write a bill to put it in, I will put it in for him,” Chace said. “I am absolutely in favor of it, and I believe it needs to be vetted through legislation. It won’t happen in this session. It’s not emergency legislation.”

Chace added that the Taxation Committee has been “friendly” in regards to exemptions for veterans, but not so much the Appropriations Committee.

The Bureau of Veterans Services is a veterans advocacy group, and a resource for legislators who want help with associated bills. Adria Horn, director of the bureau, said she confers often with the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee. Horn said last Wednesday she had been on the job for fewer than five weeks, but wouldn’t be surprised if something similar had been brought up at the State House.

“There is always someone trying to reduce financial burdens for disabled veterans,” Horn said.

Horn said it is difficult to say, at the rates that 100 percent disabled veterans are compensated, that they can’t afford excise taxes. Veterans considered totally disabled receive $34,299 a year tax-free, she said.

“I am always for the veterans,” Horn said, “but I hesitate to champion a cause that puts other hard-working individuals in a position that they can’t afford to pay their excise taxes.”

Horn said there are probably fewer than 5,000 totally disabled veterans in the state.