BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) – The city’s new method of collecting unpaid car taxes has rankled both residents and banks. Bridgeport is the first city in Connecticut to try to collect delinquent taxes by seizing money directly from private savings and checking accounts. Some banks are complying with city-issued tax warrants but others are not.

The warrants instruct banks to sift through a list of more than 120,000 delinquent taxpayers. If any have accounts, the bank has to freeze the amount of the back taxes and then send it to the city.

So far the effort has netted about $100,000 dollars. “It’s a fishing expedition at our expense,” said Cheryl Ernst, manager of the Bridgeport Post Office Federal Credit Union, which is freezing funds in customer accounts. “We have two employees. They sent us 120,000 names and we have to go through those names and see if they have an account.”

Webster and People’s Bank are refusing to freeze accounts, saying they have to protect their customers. Other small banks are complying, but say they don’t have the resources to sift through so many accounts.

Customers are even less happy. “How can they go in and do this?” asked Susan Clark, a postal employee who said she had $240 frozen in her credit union account.

“I don’t even owe anything. I paid it and just registered a new car,” Clark said.

Despite complains, Bridgeport officials said they intend to continue trying to collect unpaid car taxes with the bank warrants.

“We have been developing this for the last several months,” said Michael Feeney, the city’s chief administrative officer. “We are going to do what we need to do.”

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Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

AP-ES-08-19-06 1913EDT