Evening star., 1951-04-12
Assessment Bill
Veto Asked by
II Counties
Action Token as -
Eastern and Western
Shores Organize
By ]. L. MichoeI
BY Stoff Correspondent Of The sfar

FREDERICK, Md, April 12.-
Maryland's eastern and western
shore county commissioners,
welded into a new association, to-
day threw their full strength into
a fight to block change in the
States real estate tax assessment
system.
Commissioners from 18 of the
% counties approved the east-west
merger at a meeting here yeSter-
day. Immediately afterward. IT
counties voted to make an 11th-
hour appeal to Gov McKeldin
for his veto of a bill which would
cut the tax cycle from five years
to three years.
Sponsored by State Senator
C. Ferdinald Sybert, Democrat,
Howard County. the measure is
among several hundred sent to
the Governors desk by the last
General Assembly. The Governor
will sign or veto many of the bills
tomorrow.
Time Asked for Study.
The chief executive will be
asked to withhold his signature to
allow a special commissioners
committee time to study the con-
troversial problem and report to
the Legislature next year
Howard County. presumably out
of Difference to Senator Sybert,
did not vote on the veto motion
Baltimore, Caroline, Dorchester,
st. Mary's and Somerset counties
were not represented at the meet
ing in the Francis Scott Key
Hotel U, Grant Hooper of Fred
erick County, president of the
Western Shore commissioners, and
Paul Widdowson of Wicomico
County, who heads the Eastern
Shore unit, shared duties of the
presiding officer.
Joseph H A. Rogan, chairman
of the State Tax Commission,
launched the attack on the Sybert
bill, saying it would result in in
equities and lack of uniformity
and would throw the States tax
assessment system back to the
chaotic days of 1912"
Full Value Assessments.
Under the present system, each
county is divided into five tax dis
tricts. One district is reassesSed
each year and the new valuations
are recorded Immediately Il
The Sybert bill provides for re-
appraisal of one-third of each
county, real estate annually but
new assessment figures would not
be put on the books until the end
of the third-year cycle. 1t also
calls for assessment at full cash
value, a term, Mr.. Rogan said, is
so elusive that it has at least /
27 definitions. If signed by the
Governor, it would become effec-
tive June / and the first three
year cycle would begin January
!, 1854.
The five-year plan, which was
inaugurated in 1914, has made
real estate assessments more uni
form and equitable than at any
time in the States history, MI
Rogan declared.
Exceeds Baltimore City.
For the first time he as
serted, the assessable basis of the
counties, now 522 per cent of the
whole, exceed that of Baltimore
City, which now has 47.8 per cent
Baltimore has employed the five
year rotational plan since 1900
and has complained bitterly that
the counties have consistently
undervalued their real property
for tax purposes.
Pushed for time because of the
tax discussion, the commissioners
postponed election of a state
wide slate until meeting of be
held on the Eastern Shore, prob
ably in Ocean City in August.
A constitution and bylaws for
the new association. prepared and
explained by Irving G. McNayr,
county manager of Montgomery
County, were adopted unani-
mouSly.
Advising in the organizational
work yesterday was Keith L. Seeg-
miller of Washington, general
oo,,Yca1 oF tho Notio,7ol Acc0nia