Mattapoisett may be losing out on funds from boat sticker fees and excise taxes, according to Harbormaster Horace Field and the Marine Advisory Board.

Field and Marine Advisory Board chair Alan Gillis brought the issue to Selectmen at a meeting on Tuesday, June 12.

Field said many boats in the harbor, especially those on the edges of town, don’t have current stickers.

Town Administrator Mike Gagne said he had visited some of the areas and agreed with Field.

“Check the outer edges, you’ll be amazed,” he said.

“I think we picked out 75 boats. People think, ‘I’m not in the harbor, I don’t have to register.’”

Gagne said he didn’t want to make any accusations but, “I want to make sure every boat in Mattapoisett -— be it on a mooring, in front of a home, at a marina, at a dock — pay like all the others.”

Beyond thorough checks of boats,  Gillis and Field suggested the creation of a policy that would streamline sticker fees and excise taxes for marinas.

Current policy is a combination of the two.

Some marinas purchase stickers for their customers while others let customers purchase their own.

The new policy asks marinas to buy stickers for every mooring, assign them to their customers and give the town a list of the boats.

“It would save the town a lot of time and probably save the customers a lot of time, too,” said Gillis.

“It would potentially increase boat excise tax for the town and you would have a better listing of what’s out there. The onus is on the marina.”

The Marine Advisory Board members said they believed this could also help the town identify boats that are required to pay excise taxes to the town.

Selectman Tyler Macallister said, “It will give marinas a little more incentive to make sure their books agree with what they’re reporting to the town.”

Field said he also discovered that most people with floats are not paying the required $50 sticker fee.

The Selectmen said that many people may not realize their float needs a permit.

“Nobody ever paid any attention to them before,” said Field. “Some of the floats don’t have boats on them, but they have to have a sticker.”

The Selectmen supported Field’s efforts as well as a proposal to charge $50 for new dinghy racks at Town Landing.

“I want to make sure we maximize revenue for the projects you have coming up,” said Gagne. “By July 1, let’s see there’s not a boat out there that’s not registered.”