HARVEY, Illinois (WLS) — Harvey businesses say city officials are denying their business licenses and barricading their storefronts with giant concrete blocks to stop them from operating. The mayor said it’s because they’re delinquent on their property taxes, but business owners say that’s not fair.

At the Harvey Auto Center, Benecia Gonzalez is blocked from doing cement barricade business. They even locked them up with a lock and chain.

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The city placed the cement blocks there recently after Gonzalez’s business license was suspended. According to letters sent to the company, the licenses were suspended because of delinquent property taxes it and others like Michael Kinsch owe to Cook County, not the city of Harvey. The city uses these fees for city services.

“I was shocked. They came with huge trucks. A huge crane and 20 people,” said Kinsch, who is in the same situation at his Michael Motors used car lot. There is also a cease and desist order posted on his door.

“And it was such a big production to come and shut us down,” Kinsch said.

Traditionally, municipalities rely on Cook County’s process to send notices of default and possibly sell back taxes sold at a tax sale to buyers who can then place a lien on the property.

RELATED: More suburban Cook County property owners fail to pay property taxes on time: treasurer

But in Harvey, the city is taking action. Businesses denied a license can pay the city a $20,000 fine for a one-year license, or they could make monthly payments that would cost up to $30,000 for a year. But that money wouldn’t go toward their delinquent property tax bills, just the business license that the city says is typically about $250 a year, depending on the size of the business.

The city did not tell the I-Team how many other businesses were denied licenses, but said hundreds of commercial properties are several years behind on their taxes, owing more than $12 million in property taxes.

“Because those taxes weren’t paid, it became difficult to run a city and run a city,” Mayor Chrostopher Clark said.

Clark said the city relies on those county property taxes.

READ MORE: Why is Cook County’s property tax bill so high? The southern, southwestern suburbs have recently been re-evaluated

“When businesses don’t pay their property taxes, residents have to pay more,” he said.

And that’s why he said the city recently passed a law that allows them to deny business licenses/ But the law says nothing about using concrete barricades.

“I think that might be the best way at that time. We might use a variety of tactics,” the mayor said of the tactic.

But does that mean the city is strong arming businesses?

“You know who was heavily armed? The residents of Harvey, because they’re losing their homes at a tremendous rate because the taxes haven’t been paid by these businesses… They’re being passed on to the homeowners,” Clark said.

MORE COVERAGE Some Must Pay Erroneous Cook County Property Taxes After Bills Not Corrected Before Due Date

The town hall used its own camera to record our interview. I asked if the additional cost of $20,000 for a business license would put these business owners so far behind that they could never catch up.

“Again, if he had been a good corporate citizen and done what he was supposed to do, he would have already paid his taxes, and if he had paid his taxes, he wouldn’t be in this situation,” the mayor. said.

Gonzalez said he recently paid off a large balance of his late property taxes, but a large bill was left behind when he inherited the store.

“How are we going to make money to pay them? How are we going to make money to even pay our property taxes,” she said.

Business owners say they’ll never catch up on their taxes if they pay their fines. This comes at a time when property taxes and assessments have skyrocketed in the southern suburbs.

Harvey’s mayor said he was not aware of other suburbs taking this action.