Evening star., 1952-10-23
Reassessment
Seen as Bar 10
New Tax Raise
Present Rate Cun
Corry 1853 Budget,
Hancock Declares

~ a~~S OU0SSts
Hancock Declares
Alex Hancock, director of f.
nance for Montgomery County,
indicated last night that recent
property reaSSessments may en-
able the county to hold the line
against further tax increases next
year.
In answer to a hypothetical
question raised at meeting Of
Chevy Chase (Md.) home-owners,
Mr.. Hancock said he believes that
with the estimated 500 million
increase in the county's assessahle
base expected from the new re-
assessment, the present tax rate
could carry next years budget.
He would not predict whether
1t would be possible to decrease |
the tax rate. which now stands
at $2.10 per $100 of assessed valu-
alton. He said it Is impossible
even to make a good guess at next
years tax rate at this time.
However, he invited members of
his audience Of almost 200 in the
Chevy Chase Elementary School
to show up at budget hearings and
state the desires for economy
they have been expressing in their
protests against the sharply in
creased assessments. He pointed
out that at budget hearings last
spring, only one man urged that
services and costs be cut.
Allen Speaks.
Wilton T. Allen, supervisor of
assessments, also addressed the
meeting. sponsored by the Citi-
zens' Committee of Martins Ad-
dition to Chevy Chase. County
Manager Irving G. McNayr was
scheduled to attend, too, but he
failed to appear.
Mr.. Allen explained that the
reason for sharp increases in re-
assessments this year - some
home-owners say theirs have risen
as much as 80 per CENTS that
the State Tax Commission is
operating under an entirely diff
ferent assessment formula.
From 1943 to 1949, he said,
assessments were made on a 1941
market value. In 1949. however.
the Maryland Court of Appeals
suggested, In a Calvert County
case, that such a procedure might
be illegal, since the law calls for
assessment "at full cash value of
the year Of assessment" After
that decision, the commission in
structed it's assessors to assess at
current market value, Exercising /
prerogatives to reach a true
value"
40 Per Cent Deduction.
Mr.. Allen said he and the
assessor in neighboring Prince
Georges County have been di-
rected by the tax commission this /
year to deduct about 40 per cent
for imitation in addition to deduc-
tions for depreciation and obso-
lescence.
He said his staff attempts to ar
rive at an assessed value which is
less than so per cent of sales value,
or the price that the property /
would bring on the open market.
Most of the homes reassessed in
suburban Montgomery this year,
he said, have been given an assess
ment figure from Al to So per cent i
of sales value.
Mr.. Allen criticized the provi-
sion in the present Maryland as
sessment law calling for division
of each county and Baltimore City /
into five districts with rotating re-
assessments in each district on a
dve-year basis.
He said he thinks new law,
passed by the Maryland General
Assembly this year to go into
effect in 1854, will be fairer to
taxpayers. The new law, he ex-
planned, provides for a three-year
assessment rotation but stipulates
that new assessments will go on
the books only after all proper
ties have been reassessed or every
three years.
Mr.. Allen conceded that assess
ments on some homes this year
may be as much as 80 per cent
higher than they were the last
time they were assessed in 1947.
But he reminded his audience that
in that prior assessment, property
was assessed on a 1941 market
value basis. He said he does not
feel that an assessment of about
30 per cent of market value is
unfair