To view our videos, you need to:
1. Enable JavaScript. Learn how.
2. Install Adobe Flash. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Famous Anthony's Pizzeria could soon have a problem with the Fire Department. Not because of any fire hazards, but because it's delinquent in paying off fines to the Health Department.

Under a new plan being considered by the Bloomberg administration, one city agency that grants permits and services to a business could be used to leverage payments to another.

The approach is one of many the Bloomberg administration is kicking around as it tries to recoup monies that belong in the city's coffers.

"It's just that there's money that's owed to the city of New York, and we should figure out a way to get it," explains Jeffrey Kay of the Mayor's Office of Operations.

Under one scenario, the Fire Department could refuse to sign off on a restaurant's fire suppression system until it pays its bill to the health department. A construction site that owes money could find the city unwilling to renew its permits until it pays all its fines with the Department of Buildings.

"I think what we have to do is find out where the big money is; where the most collectible money is; where it's appropriate to look at enforcement; where it's appropriate to make sure people know what they owe," says Kay.

Officials won't just be going after debtors with a stick. Payment by credit cards will soon be accepted for more, if not all, the fines and fees issued by the city. And officials say sending out multiple notices about fines and ensuring those notices go to the correct address will help.

The city is banking on bringing in nearly $50 million over the next two fiscal years by collecting money from unpaid fines and fees.

New Yorkers NY1 spoke with agree that it's high time everyone pays up.

"If everyone thinks they can just get away with doing things illegally and not have to pay any fine or any penalty at all, then the city would be in a pretty pickle," said one New Yorker near Penn Station.

Budget observers say it often takes a financial disaster, like the current one, to make officials to go after everything the city is owed.

"When you are running these types of projects in city government you tend to do the urgent," says Carol Kellermann of the Citizens Budget Commission. "And there is so much that you don't get to, the things that maybe seem to have a lesser payoff, until there is a crisis when every last penny counts."

Of course, collecting the unpaid fines and tickets won't solve the city's budget crisis on its own. But when it comes to helping close a multi-billion dollar budget gap next year, every little bit counts.