The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1922-12-29
THE TAX REVISION COMMISSION

The f1fSt meeLlIlS OI tuc IoA
Revision Commission appointed
by Governor Richie, under the
provisions of Chapter 427 of the
Acts of the General Assembly of
1922, was held on Thursday,
December 18th.
By the terms of the Act under
which it was appointed the Com
mission is requested to investl-
gate the systems of State, Coun-
ty and Municipal taxation in
force in Maryland and to inquire
into their practical operation and
effect in the raising of adequate
revenue. The Commission is in
structed to inquire into the sys-
tens of taxation in force in 9TH
er States and to ascertain their
practical operation and effect
and is instructed to make a
printed report to the Governor
by December 1, 1923, fer his use
and for transmission by him to
the General Assembly of 1924;
which report is to contain a
draft of general system of
law providing for the imposition
and collection of revenue, taxes
and charges in the State of
Maryland. -
with regard to its duties Mr..
Francis K. Carey, Chairman,
made the following statement:
Governor Ritchie has asked
the Tax Revision. Commission to
perform very difficult and res
ponsible piece-of work; and al
though all of us have been Sc
lected by the Governor without
any consultation with US, we
have all thought it our duty to
accept the appointments and
have entered aggressively upon
our Investigations.
"The Act requires all public
officers of the State to supply US,
on request, with all needed in
formation; but our Commission
feels that as it has Statewide
responsibility, which it must, of
course, exercise in an absolutely
impartial fashion, it must have
the warmest cooperation and
support from all the officials OF
the State who have to do with
the Questions of taxation, and
we will seize upon the earliest
opportunity to confer with these
officials and invite their advice
and suggestions. In the mean
time, we will set in motion ma
chinery for collecting, recording
and digesting all possible infor-
nation which we can obtain
from other States, many of
which, we understand. have re-
Gently completed and reported
upon Investigations of this char
acter, and IN some of which
modernized machinery for as
sessing and collecting taxes has
been in operation long enough to
give reasonable evidence of its
practical operation.
Whether our Commission
recommends to Governor Richie
as the result of our study any
radical changes in the present
tax laws or not, | think the en-
tire Bar of the State and all of
the taxing authorities will agree
with us in thinking that the ex
isting laws can at least be put
in a more orderly and intelligi-
BILE form without the exercise of
any high ability in Statute writ
ing; and even if we find it un-
necessary or undesirable to rec
ommend any radical changes in
the taxing system Of Maryland,
I think we may be able to rem
der real service to the public
by recodifying the existing law
so that it will be found under
one article and can be read and
understood by man of ordinary
intelligence.
1t is perhaps unnecessary to |
say that the members of our
Commission will take the great
est pleasure in receiving and
carefully considering any sug-
gestions which anybody is good
enough to make to US. During
he coming spring and summer
t is the purpose of the members
# the Commission to visit each
,ne.of the counties of the State
or the purpose of having per-
onal conferences with the local
axing authorities.
Before completing our report
r making a final draft of a
tate-wide revenue lay, which
oo A Of ronJ1ir0c ne fn m a a yxTo !