According to the New York Post, former KISS manager Jesse Hilsen — otherwise known as New York City's worst deadbeat dad — stubbornly refuses to pay up, preferring to rot in jail rather than settle a nearly $400,000 tab to his kids that's piled up for 17 years.

Hilsen, a former Upper East Side shrink, once owned millions in real estate but has done his all to duck his debt to his three kids and about $2 million more he owes his wife, Rita, The Post reports.

Hilsen has been at a federal lockup in Brooklyn for nine months awaiting trial, but he could get out if he offered to begin payments.

Rita's lawyer, Jacqueline Bukowski, has been hunting for Jesse's hidden cash, which he allegedly squirreled away in South Africa, Israel and Holland during his years on the lam.

His problems with paying up go back to 1988, when he agreed to give Rita $750 a week and each child $200 under a divorce settlement. He never followed through.

Hilsen, who used 10 aliases while hiding out in three countries, was busted in the Catskills last June after 10 years on the run.

Hilsen raked in $300,000 to $500,000 annually in the four years he managed KISS, but had filed for bankruptcy and refused to pay alimony to his ex-wife.

Rita lost her East Side apartment in the bankruptcy proceeding and has lived in an 8-by-12-foot room in a shelter for the last eight years.

KISS leaders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were served subpoenas by a private investigator in September 2003 before their performance at Chicago's Tweeter Center in connection with the case.

The purpose of the subpoenas was to determine what, if any, financial ties exist between Hilsen and the band, as well as whether any band members have been in touch with him since he became a fugitive. Hilsen had been Stanley's psychiatrist for several years before becoming the band's business manager. He and the band split in 1992.