A group seeking to change Lisbon’s charter so residents can approve or reject the municipal budget is hiring an attorney to challenge a recent Lisbon Council vote that would delay the effort by at least a year.

Town officials had received a petition from Lisbon Residents for Responsible Government seeking to change the approval process for the municipal budget. Currently, the Lisbon Council approves each year’s new town budget. The charter change proposed by the citizens’ group would allow residents to approve or deny the municipal budget at the polls — as they do now with the school budget. A total of 998 residents signed the petition.

The charter change effort has its roots in residents’ frustration with a potential tax increase under the new town budget. An accounting error of $1.3 million last year left the town in a financial hole. Despite a municipal budget that is $400,000 lower than last year, the error caused the town’s share of the budget to increase by 10.6%. When combined with the school, county and water district budgets, taxes are expected to increase by 18.6%.

Unable to vent their frustration on the town budget, residents on June 10 voted down the school budget overwhelmingly. Residents will have another chance Tuesday to vote on the school budget, which was sent back to voters unchanged following the June 10 vote.

Meanwhile, residents took up a campaign to allow them to vote on the municipal budget so they can more directly influence town spending.

After the previous town attorney said the citizens’ proposed change is considered an “amendment” to the charter, the council at its July 22 meeting, relying on the advice of new town attorney Michael Carey, is calling the petition a “revision,” which by definition involves more significant and complicated changes to the charter.

By considering the petition language a “revision,” a charter commission would need to be formed to address the matter, which would delay a vote on the budget change for at least a year. If the change were considered an “amendment,” the question would be placed on the ballot in November.

Lisbon Residents for Responsible Government started a GoFundMe page to raise money to hire an attorney to challenge the council’s decision in Superior Court. The group quickly raised the funds.

The GoFundMe page was started by Melissa Leask. Her original goal was to raise $3,400, but she ended the fundraising at $2,775 when the group’s attorney said that was enough to cover expenses, Leask wrote on the GoFundMe page.

The group is being represented by the Lewiston law firm Skelton Tainter & Abbott, according to Charlie Turgeon, who started the petition drive. Turgeon said he is not part of the fundraising campaign for the court challenge.

According to Leask, the attorney representing the residents has confidence the petition question will be ruled as an amendment.

“Per our lawyer, ‘I believe that the town’s ruling can be overturned due to the arbitrary and capricious nature of the ruling; by all definition, this proposed change was an amendment, not a revision. The opinion of the town’s attorney was simply ignored and the law misapplied to imagined revisions of the charter, versus actual revisions to the charter, which were not substantial enough to create a revision,'” Leask wrote on the GoFundMe page.

A representative from Skelton Tainter & Abbott did not return a call seeking comment.