There have been a lot of fingers pointing at Bradford City officials in the past few weeks, with ready complaints from the public about spending and taxation.

On Friday, some city officials spoke to The Era to shed some light on the more-than-$370,000 in delinquent mercantile and business taxes, as well as garbage bills owed to the city by members of the community.

“We are going to do what we can to aggressively force them to pay,” said Mayor Tom Riel.

City administrator Teri Cannon said there’s about $130,000 in unpaid garbage bills, even more if one considers industrial hauling accounts where Dumpsters are rented.

And there are some businesses that simply refuse to pay the business privilege tax or the mercantile tax — “it’s unfair to the people who do pay,” Riel said.

In 2019, it will not be a kinder, gentler city government.

“Right out of the gate we’re going to be pushing,” Riel said. Anyone who is in arrears in taxes or fees to the city will not be granted permits until payment plans are in place.

“We are reserving the right to withhold permits,” Cannon said.

As an example, Riel said a landlord who is in arrears on garbage bills will not be granted rental inspections until a payment plan has been made with solicitor Mark Hollenbeck. Any business who hasn’t paid the mercantile or business privilege tax — some of which are years in arrears — will not be granted kitchen permits or rooming house licenses or anything of the like.

“Two local business folks alone owe over $22,000 in refuse,” Riel said.

Cannon said it’s a problem to collect the money. “If we stop collecting the garbage, we have a health problem.”

The city has added a 10 percent late fee for refuse accounts.

“For the industrial hauling accounts, if you haven’t paid your bill, we can take your Dumpsters out,” Cannon said.

She added, “Everything the city does costs money. People want to complain about the city, but we really have some spoiled city residents.

“Some of the luxuries people have come to expect may have to come to an end,” Cannon said.

For example, the city will no longer pick up yard waste. An explanation of the changes to the yard waste policy will be included in the city garbage coupon books.

“Our budget is really bare bones,” Cannon said, adding the majority of it is wages and benefits — which are dictated by contracts with four separate unions.

“We did end up going with a different carrier for health insurance, and we got a different workers comp carrier as well,” she added.

The savings for the city’s general fund from the health insurance is about $80,000 and for comp is about $60,000, Cannon explained.

The city cut funding for the Main Street program by $10,000, cut the amount of financial support given to the McKean County SPCA and is making some changes in city-owned parking lots and in ambulance billing.

“The parking authority has agreed to give the city $5,000 each year for the maintenance for the parking lots,” Riel said. In 2019 that will be $15,000, for two years prior as well as the current year.

“They are looking at selling a couple of underused parking lots,” he said, adding the city maintains them currently. “Some of those, we’re only making a few hundred dollars a year. It’s not in the city’s best interest to maintain those.”

Cannon explained the city has also switched providers for ambulance billing, and the rates are going up.

“ALS will go from $12 a mile to $25 a mile,” she said. “We’re going to be adjusting the rates for ambulance billing to get them in line with national averages.”

Riel added, “Our rates were low. Medicare and insurance companies are paying more for ambulance calls and we’re going to adjust our rates accordingly. We’re hoping to bring in $85,000 more.”

Cannon turned the discussion to expenses, explaining the city’s minimum municipal obligation for pensions in 2019 is going to be around $800,000. “The Bradford Sanitary Authority pays into that and so does the (Office of Economic and Community Development). After they make their contribution, the rest is on us.”

Riel said one person was laid off from the refuse during the budget process. “We anticipate two people leaving from the department this year,” he said, adding if that happens, the person will be brought back.

While the budget for 2019 has been passed, there is still work to be done.

Cannon said, “We have a lot of work to do to maintain this budget where it’s at.”

Riel said that includes implementing the new ambulance billing, and implementing the new guidelines for issuing permits and making sure debts to the city are paid.

“There’s going to be many people involved in making sure” the process works as intended.

“City council doesn’t feel our expectations for these revenue streams are pie-in-the-sky,” Riel said. “We think they are realistic.”

Cannon said, “We’d like the public to know how much the city sacrificed and cut so as not to have a tax increase.”