Comtois says Gobi has mismanaged personal finances

Democrat was late filing returns

By Shaun Sutner, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

October 27, 2006

Republican Stephen J. Comtois of Brookfield says his opponent, state Rep. Anne M. Gobi, D-Spencer, can’t be trusted to help oversee the state’s finances because she has mismanaged her personal finances by not paying her income taxes on time and defaulting on a $1,955 Sears credit card bill.

Ms. Gobi, a lawyer and member of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee, failed to file state income tax returns in 2002 and 2003 but later filed them, according to the state Department of Revenue.

She told the Boston Herald last year that she filed her 2002 tax return on time and received a refund, and that she filed her 2003 return late. Ms. Gobi has refused to provide copies of the returns to the Telegram & Gazette or the Herald. The Department of Revenue maintains that its records are accurate.

The legislator, who has represented Spencer and 10 other communities in western and northern Worcester County since 2001, paid the credit card debt in September 2005 after a collection agency sued her for the money in East Brookfield District Court.

“I’d like to know why she didn’t pay her taxes,” Mr. Comtois, chairman of the Brookfield School Committee, said in an interview. “We’re entrusting her, not only as a representative but also as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, with our tax dollars.

“And there’s evidence she’s having a hard time managing her own finances,” he added. “That leads me to believe she’d have the same inability to manage our tax dollars.”

Mr. Comtois, who is seeking to unseat Ms. Gobi in the Nov. 7 election, made the comments after being informed by a Telegram & Gazette reporter this week about the incumbent’s tax and debt issues.

Ms. Gobi, 43, declined to be interviewed for this report. She directed questions about her finances to her lawyer, Michael Meloche of Spencer.

Mr. Meloche said that while Ms. Gobi paid the credit card bill rather than see the matter go to trial, she believes some of her past payments were never posted by the credit card company and she did not really owe the money. He said she has taken steps to contest the payment.

“It comes down to cost-effectiveness. It’s cheaper to lose,” Mr. Meloche said. “It’s just not worth the aggravation.”

Mr. Meloche provided the Telegram & Gazette with a letter, dated Jan. 6, 2006, to Lustig, Glaser & Wilson, the Needham law firm that sued Ms. Gobi, asking for history of her Sears card account from 1998 to 2005. Mr. Meloche said he also included copies of checks Ms. Gobi had written to Sears over the last 10 years.

“Naturally, I got no response,” he said.

Kenneth A. Wilson, the lawyer who handled Ms. Gobi’s case for the law firm, said he never received the letter.

“I never got it. I’d be happy to call the guy and give him what he wants,” he said. “I don’t know how I can respond to a non-inquiry.”

Mr. Meloche said it would have been too expensive and time-consuming for Ms. Gobi to bring a legal counter-claim against the company, even though he alleged that such collection agencies routinely don’t have proof that the customer is delinquent. And while Ms. Gobi located some of the checks, it was difficult to find all of them, he said.

Many consumers would find it similarly difficult to find old checks, he said. “If I told you to get a check you paid the credit card company in 1998, could you? None of us can,” he said.

“They have no supporting documentation. None of them have any records,” Mr. Meloche said. “She had been making monthly payments.”

Mr. Wilson, the collection agency lawyer, said he routinely receives documentation on outstanding credit card debts. He said his office each month processes more than 100,000 document images of such documentation.

For Mr. Comtois, a 34-year-old contractor, Ms. Gobi’s credit card issue comes down to good record keeping.

“If I knew I paid $2,000 for a credit card bill, I’d definitely find a receipt to prove that I paid it,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t pay again. Two thousand dollars is a lot of money.”