AUGUSTA – An Army Reservist will not have to pay a $6,000 supplemental tax bill incurred when Brownville officials removed his property from the state’s tree growth tax program while he was serving in Iraq.

The state Board of Property Tax Revenue ruled unanimously Monday in favor of an appeal by Steve Campbell, 39, of Brewer who claimed the town of Brownville violated the federal Serviceman’s Civil Relief Act by removing his property from the tree growth protection program, then presenting him with a nearly $6,000 supplemental tax bill as a penalty.

“I’m very happy,” Campbell said Tuesday. “It’s a great weight off my shoulders to know that it’s behind me.”

Campbell said he has either been working on or thinking about the tax bill since he received it in November.

Brownville Town Manager Sophia Wilson, who said she encouraged Campbell to file the appeal, said she too, was pleased the issue has been resolved. “We are happy that it has been settled, and we now have the information we need to properly assess service members,” she said Tuesday.

Campbell’s plight began when he bought the Brownville property in tree growth in May 2004. He said he realized he had a year to extend the tree growth program, but four months later he was deployed to Iraq and the matter slipped in importance.

Believing that the Serviceman’s Civil Relief Act provided him protection from any property tax action while he was in Iraq, Campbell figured he had 180 days to settle the matter upon his return home. He returned to Maine in September 2005, and two months later he received a letter from Brownville advising him he owed $5,924 as a tree

growth penalty.

Campbell appealed the bill to the Brownville Board of Appeals, but his request was denied. He then filed an appeal with the State Board of Property Tax Review.

Wilson said that once ownership of a parcel is transferred, the owner has a year to extend the tree growth.

“When we assessed the penalty in November 2005 we had no idea he was overseas,” she said in March.

The issue was that once a penalty has been assessed, selectmen can abate only for a legal reason, Wilson said.

With tree growth protection, there has to be a law that would show the town made an error in assessing the penalty, she said.

Brownville selectmen and the town’s attorney found no law governing that, including the Serviceman’s Civil Relief Act, she said.

The federal relief act was too vague to resolve the matter.

Assistant Attorney General Michelle Robert said a written decision from the board will be forthcoming.

“I hope nobody else has to do what I did,” Campbell said.