Scandals Beg Question: Should the State Do More to Oversee Tax Collection?

It’s an interesting question and one that, until recently, many locals didn’t think they needed to ask: Can you trust your municipal tax collector?

That is what the Valley Independent Sentinel is asking after tax collectors in Oxford and, most recently, Derby and Ansonia have been involved in scandals to steal money from their respective offices.

The Sentinel points out that the state wanted to make sure it could trust people collecting money some 13 years ago, when it passed a law mandating training and testing for municipal tax collectors. However, that law has never been implemented. 

In Oxford, a formal training procedure, and perhaps some state oversight of municipal tax collection, may have caused the town’s longtime tax collector to think twice before embezzling from tax coffers. 

Former Tax Collector , 63, has pleaded guilty to stealing $242,903 from the tax office over several years.

The state has recommended that she spend the next five years in prison and repay the money that state police say she stole. (Many believe Guillet stole far more than that amount.)

Guillet will be sentenced on Oct. 29 at Milford Superior Court.