The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-08-11
Assessment Of Property.

The Baltimore Sun has recently pub |
lished two articles relating to the assess
ment of property in this State for taxa
ton under the general assessment law
of 1910. The result of that assessment
has been to increase the valuation OF
property in the counties by nearly $I2o,
100000. Since 1897. when the last gen.
eral assessment in the counties was
made, the assessment of Baltimore City,
which was already high, increased $780,
sos, 900, or over so per cent. In the
articles referred to it is plainly shown
that the system of State taxation is de-
fective in that there is no uniformity of
assessment In Baltimore property is
assessed up to its full value. In some
of the counties, even under the new as
sessment, the valuation is far below the
actual value. In some Of the counties
property is assessed at about 50 per
cent. of its value, and IN the others at
about 80 per cent. In Frederick county,
for instance, it is said that farm lands
which are held by their owners at $Ioo
an acre, or near that sum, are assessed
at $40 to which the value OF the i'm
provements is added. making the as
sessment in some instances not much
more than half Of its real value. This,
perhaps, explains why Frederick county,
which is the largest county in the whole
State. and probably next to Baltimore
county. the richest, is assessed at S4,-
500, 900 less than Washington county,
and has gained less than Carroll. Fred
erick has $50 square miles of territory,
while Washington has only 457, and
| Frederick county has the most fertile
| farming lands in the whole State. Where
property in county is assessed at only
| half its value, the owner of that property
| pays only one-half as much;proportion-
| ately of the direct State tax as the owner
! OF property in the CITY or another county.
where the property is assessed at its full
value This is an injustice which cries
| aloud for remedy. So long as the as
sessment throughout a county IS reason
| ably uniform it makes no difference
about local taxation A low assessment
means relatively high tax rate, and a
high assessment means a low tax rate
the amount of the tax actually paid by
the taxpayers being the same in either
case But it does make a difference
when it comes to the State tax. The
rate OF the direct State tax is uniform
throughout the State. Those counties
where the assessment is more nearly up
to the real value will have proportion
ately more to pay. That is the reason
why the City OF Baltimore pays more OF
the direct State tax in proportion to the
wealth than any other part of the State.
Let us suppose that man owns house
in the city worth SToooo 1t will be
assessed at $4,000, and his bill for the
4 State taxes at the present levy % cents
on the sIoo, will be S22. Now let us
suppose that man owns farm ir
Frederick county worth $4,000 anc
that farm is assessed at 5000. His bill
for State taxes on it will be only Sfr
or one-haf of what the city man pays
and the two men are worth the same
That is not payment of taxation accord
imp to the actual worth as required il
the Constitution 1t has been suggested
that this inequality might be remedied By
having a single assessing agency for th'
entire State whose duty should be con
tinuing like the Appeal Tax Court o
Baltimore.