To help with debt, Reading asks court for pauper status

READING - This cash-strapped city has asked a judge to grant it status as a pauper, a declaration that could allow the city to file - for free - hundreds of court actions seeking to collect overdue taxes and fees.

The Reading Eagle newspaper reported that Solicitor Charles D. Younger intends to file perhaps hundreds of actions in county court and before district judges for unpaid taxes, trash and sewer bills, and housing fees. Younger filed a petition in Berks County Court last week that asks a judge to grant it status as a pauper.

Last year, the city ran a $11.9 million deficit. Without grants, the petition said, it would be running a deficit of more than $3.6 million this year.

"Because of its current financial condition, the City of Reading has no available resources to pay necessary filing fees to pursue various civil actions in the Court of Common Pleas of Berks County or before Magisterial District Courts," Younger said in the petition.

The city is asking for a blanket waiver for all actions it files in county court or before district judges. It suggested the waiver continue as long as the city remained in Act 47, the state's financial-recovery program for municipalities.