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rules and methods .....", does that mean by
act of the General Assembly or by rule or
regulation of the department or agency of
the State?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE : It means the State
acts as the State, and it has to act, of
course, through an administrative agency.
This means that the State will assume
responsibility for assessment procedures.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Would you
have any objection to adding the words,
after State, "by law"?
"The State 'by law' shall prescribe and
administer uniform rules and methods for
determining- property tax assessments."
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I do not think it
adds anything, so I would have to object
to it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Would it not
add the specificity of the General Assembly
doing this, rather than by some depart-
ment or agency or instrumentality of the
State?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I do not think so,
because obviously the State, if it is going
to act, has to act by law, and equally as
obviously if it is going to act, it is going
to have to act through an administrative
agency, so that it seems to me you are
merely stating the obvious.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Then what you
are telling me is that the law which per-
mits the agency to act will define the area
or powers of that agency to establish or
prescribe rules and methods?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Delegate Clagett
as far as I know, no administrative agency
in this State can act beyond the powers
delegated to it or granted to it by the
General Assembly.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: I note also
that this sentence that we are dealing with
says the State shall prescribe and ad-
minister. Assume for the moment that by
law the General Assembly gave to the
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counties the power to tax with respect to
property exclusively. Then there would be
no prohibition or requirement upon that
county to prescribe and administer uniform
rules and methods, would there?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Delegate Clagett, a
fight has gone on in this State to have cen-
tralized assessments. What this means in
effect is that if the counties want to use
the property taxes, as of course they do,
the assessments will be centralized, they
will be made by the State.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett —
DELEGATE CASE: I want to make this
abundantly clear, that this should not turn
over the assessment procedure to any local
political subdivision. Quite to the contrary.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Could it?
DELEGATE CASE: It could not, and
should not.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Therefore, the
words in lines 13 through 15 requiring
uniformity would apply with respect to any
political subdivision exercising any assess-
ment powers, as well as to the State?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case?
DELEGATE CASE: Well, section 8.02
as I said earlier applies to the State.
Now, section 8.02-1 — I am sorry; 8.02
of course applies to any political unit, as
we said earlier. You are correct in that.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do you have any
further questions, Delegate Clagett?
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Then —
DELEGATE CASE: To recapitulate,
Delegate Clagett, what this comes to is
simply this: Assessments have to be uni-
form, no matter who makes them, in the
broad sense, as I defined that word earlier,
but in section 8.02-1 we are dealing with
property tax assessments, as distinguished
from the broader type of assessment in
section 8.02.
In that instance, the State is the assess-
ing authority — or will be.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: I think that is
all.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case, may
the Chair pursue that last one just one
step further?
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