Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-11-12
HOW TAXES GROW.
A Study In County Levies.

oc PopiliouS tline u publish Wndt wa
intended to call public attention to con
dition which should be considered calml!
and without bias, and in which every citi
zen of the county is sufficiently interested t.
enlist his active cooperation in the effort t
arrest the tendency towards extravagance
which is one of the evils of our times. /
is now submitted for what it is worth.
Yours truly,
PHILIP D. LAIRD.
A great deal has been written lately
about the rapid increase of taxation, espe.
cially with respect to cities and minor civil
divisions. My reading on the subject LED
me to speculate how far the trend had
affected strictly agricultural county like
Montgomery, and, in order to satisfy my
self, have made a comparison of the
county levies, beginning with the year
1895 and ending with the year 1914.
wish to say at the outset that the work
was not undertaken with a purpose to
criticse anybody. but purely for my own
information. have dealt with the levies
exclusively and not with the cash account
of the County Commissioners office, which
is another and very different matter. Nor
have examined the minutes of the board
to discover the reasons for the various items
of the levies.
What have done is to take the levy
for each year and in separate columns show
the increases and decreases of the several
items-the purpose being to indicate the
purposes to which the increased appropria-
tons applied. The results abundantly
show that we have kept pace with the
times in the matter of taxation; and it
has occurred to me that a summary of the
study might be interesting to the tax
payers of the county
An exact comparison of all the items of
the levies from year to year is impossible
for the reason that the levies are not COM
piled scientifically but alphabetically. and
items that relate to the same general
subject are scattered instead of being
grouped, and in some years an item in the
previous years levy is dropped and appar-
emily absorbed in another item, and new
items appear from time to time, as was to
be expected. For instance, in the levy for
1895, the item Roads and Bridges" covers
all the appropriations for road purposes.
The next year. 1896, Bridges" appears as
a separate item, and the aggregate for the
two items shows a considerable increase
over the levy for the same items in 1895.
1t would serve no good purpose to give
the mass of figures that would be necessary
to show the mutations of the various items
from year to year. as it would tend to con-
fuse rather than to clarity what it seems
important to convey.
have therefore taken for comparison
the years 1895, 1905 and 1914; and, in
order to make the comparison as accurate
as possible, have ventured to group the
items of the levies under appropriate heads.
and ascertain the amounts levied for the
different groups in each year. Thus, under
Charity" are grouped the items Aims
House, INDECENT Insane, Pensions and Pau
per Collins. Under Court House" appear
Bonds, Fuel and Janitor. Under Roads
appear Bridges. Repair. Permanent I'm
provement. Damages and Examiners,
Bonds, General Road Fund, State Aid Roads,
and Miscellaneous. The
amount levied for each item is of course
given in the tables, which cannot be repro
duced here, but each group is footed up in
order to ascertain the amount for COMPARE
son with other years.
In the year 1895 the total levy for county
purposes was 500, 843.62 in 1905 it was
$135, 565.06,-an increase in ten years of
S38, 72L44, or 1913 per cent. In 1914,
the levy was $249.357.54. an increase in
nine years over 1905 of $113,792, 4S, or
1873 per cent. Compared with 1895, the
levy for 1914 shows an increase in nine
teen years of $152, 5l392. or 1877 per cent.
Taking the more important groups, we
find that for Charity" embracing the
items named above, there was levied in
1895, $l0.186.90; in 1905. $14.714.35,
an increase of $4,52745, or 44.4 per
cent in 1914, $l8.492.25. an increase
over 1905 of $3.779.9O, or 25.6 per cent,
and over 1895. of $8,3O5.35. or 82.5 per
cent
Under the head County Commissioners
have been grouped the per diem of COM
missioners. the salaries of clerks and the
commissions of collectors of taxes. The
reason for this is that the office force of
the commissioners now perform the work
of the collectors under the old system, and
the comparison could not be made in any
other way. The levy for these in 1895
was $7,917.70: in 1905 it was $40, 059.20
an increase of $2,14L50. or 81 per cent.
in 1914, it was $8,l85.OO, decrease of
$l,874.20, or 1876 per cent. as compared
with 1905. and an increase of $264.30.
or "a per cent. as compared with 1895.
These figures do not, however, include any
sums which may have been expended
for the collection of delinquent mortgage
or other taxes.
For Incorporated Towns. the levy in
1895 was $i.SO6.29; in 1905. it was 81
978.10, an increase of $I,17l8l, or GAS
per cent; in 1914, ii was $6,685.29, an
increase of $3,7O719. or 124.9 per cent
over 1905. and of $4,879,OO. or 270 per
cent. over 1895. Possibly this item should
be grouped with Roads" since it is part
of the road tax set apart by law for the
use of the towns. The large increase in
1914 is accounted for by the increased
assessment of property in the towns, and
is not a matter over which the commits.
sioners have control.
In 1895 there was levied for elections
and registration $l.S06.65; in 1905, 81.
10000. an increase of $2.659.35, or 144.s
per cent; in 1914, II was 50 10000, ar
increase Of S.. 100000, or III per cent. owe
zoos and of Ct $50 az mr. Afn 80. oo..