Bristol's Tax Collector, Theresa Bobon said in her seven years running the office, she's seen the most commotion over the past several days, since car tax bills were sent out.
"Yesterday was awful. Friday was awful," Bobon said. "Today we're getting peaks and valleys so that’s nice but there have been numerous issues with DMV.”
She describes some of the problems with the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles computer system as, "out of control."
The problems stem from the computer upgrade put in place in August 2014 for all DMV computer systems. They led to mix ups with car tax filings and thousands across Connecticut have received car tax bills for towns where they don't live.
In Bristol alone, the mayor estimates more than a thousand people have either come in person or called with concerns about where they're supposed to pay their bills that are due at the end of July.
DMV did warn cities and towns months ago of the expected problems, but Bristol Mayor Ken Cockayne, a Republican, said it wasn't enough.
"We’ve been ready for this. We knew this was coming but not to the magnitude that it’s hit us."
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In a statement, William Seymour with DMV said the agency tried to be as up-front as possible in relaying what taxpayers and municipalities may have to deal with.
"DMV and municipal officials took this proactive approach to have taxpayers check bills to help them make any adjustments before sending their payments."
Bobon is telling all taxpayers to check their bills carefully and even with her office inundated, they need to get in touch with their tax collector to work out any problems.
Mayor Cockayne said every city and town has to live with problems at DMV.
"We’re working on the screw-ups from the state. The mistakes that they’ve made for every municipality, not just Bristol, we’re all dealing with this and it’s costing us money because time is money but we’ll deal with it and hope that the DMV figures it out and corrects this issue going forward."
