"They ignored me," says Rose Bogaert, "so I just ignored them and threw [the bills] away."
A Dearborn Heights couple sees Detroit, where they owned an industrial business until 1998, as a city where you can check out any time you like . . . but the tax bills never leave.
"For years, they have been sending us bills on fire permits, taxes and anything else you can think of," Rose Bogaert, former co-owner of a metal shop on Joy Road, tells blogger Jarrett Skorup of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
"It has been 15 years since we have been in that building and they still come." . . .
Bogaert and her husband operated a metal straightening company, Detroit Straightening Services Inc., for 28 years. They said high taxes and low services from Detroit eventually forced them to close. . . .
Since they left, Bogaert estimates they have received 10 or 12 requests for taxes and fees. She said she used to call the city, but "they ignored me so I just ignored them and threw them away."
"People shouldn't ask why so many businesses have left" Detroit, says Michael LaFaive of a conservative policy center, "but why any have stayed."
Their former Joy Road building reportedly was razed, but they just can't kill the tax beast. The notices, including an August one for $181, are for new levies -- not debts owed from when they were in business.
Detroit wanted money for fire permits, for inspections and gas storage, awning permits (long after the aluminum awnings had been torn down), building occupancy and personal property fees.
In a Facebook post linking to the blog, Rose Bogaert says: "You can only take so much from Detroit bureaucracy."
The Midland-based policy center cites the situation as "another warning about trying to make a go of it in Detroit," as Michael LaFaive puts it in Skorup's post.
"The marriage of high taxes, regulation and poor services creates every sort of mischief. It's instructive that the city has the resources to go after those who have long ago fled, but not the resources to keep all its lights on today.
"The hostility showed to entrepreneurs by the city and many of its residents makes doing business there a difficult prospect," LaFaive said. "People shouldn't ask why so many businesses have left, but why any have stayed."
