Latrobe hires collection company to enforce overdue taxes, fees

Latrobe officials hired a collection agency to recoup unpaid taxes and fees in the city.

The resolution passed 5-0 during Monday’s council meeting, and the two-year contract will begin this January.

City Manager Terry Carcella said the driving force behind the decision is the amount of money that’s owed to Latrobe through sanitation fees and stormwater fees.

Any cases over $1,000 will be turned over to Pittsburgh-based MBM Collections. Residents will be warned ahead of time, Carcella said.

For cases that are sent to the collector, the bill will go up by 10%, according to Deputy Mayor Ralph Jenko.

Jenko said 99.9% of citizens are doing the right thing and paying their bills, and the council is trying to be fair.

“There are just some people who know they can get away with it,” Jenko said.

Carcella said the city will try to work with people and contact them to see if cases are viable to be turned over to the collector.

“We’re going to be very discretionary (with) how we do that,” Carcella said. “We have to be responsible for everybody in the city.”

Jenko said the council is more than willing to listen to hardship cases — citizens just have to make them aware. For cases that are sent to the collector, the bill goes up by 10%, according to Jenko.

“We know there are people in the community that are going through tough times,” Jenko said.

Carcella and Jenko said the goal is to continue to not raise taxes for the city. The council wants to be able to use MBM to collect fees appropriately and so taxes don’t have to be raised to make up for citizens who are not paying.

“Fortunately, we haven’t had the need to raise taxes yet, but every place has a breaking point,” Jenko said. “We’re not trying to be Draconian and (go after every penny) — we’re looking at probably a select small group of people that are just habitual.”