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sixty per cent of value, then it seems to me
that the basis for, absent the section on
equalization, the basis for determining the
taxes in the local political subdivision,
would be greater. This would mean that
the money coming to those political sub-
divisions would be less. It would have
nothing to do with what Baltimore City
would get, one way or the other. What you
are really driving at is that since most of
the tax powers are in Baltimore City and
since they provide the other money, would
they be called upon to pay more in other
taxes? The answer to that is probably yes,
but so would the people in Montgomery
County and Prince George's County and
Baltimore County. Do you follow what
I am saying? The fact that you have an
underassessment or overassessment does
not mean that one political unit gets more
or less. The point that is always made
here and you should understand is who
pays the county that gets more than it
should. Now, by the same token, if this
farm assessment provision is adopted as a
part of the integral part of the state,
then this coupled with section 8.02-1, the
equalization section, will insure that each
political subdivision will get exactly what
it is entitled to per the constitution and
that the people in your county will not be
required to pay any more than the people
in my county for conscious underassess-
ment.
Delegate Macdonald, do you have a fur-
ther question?
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Is it not a
fact, Delegate Case, if one group, in this
particular case, the farmers, are given a
special tax break assessmentwise, that that
increases the burden on other taxpayers
and that that increase is reflected not only
in the assessments themselves, but through
the equalization formula.
DELEGATE CASE: As I answered
earlier, of course, anytime you reduce an
exemption or make an exemption, and I
do not care what exemption it is, you neces-
sarily increase the burden the other tax-
payers share. This is as axiomatic as today
is Tuesday. This is what Mr. Howse set
out to prove and did prove in thirty pages
of somewhat meaningless statistics in my
judgment. So the first point you make is
absolutely correct. There can be no ques-
tion about it.
Now, the second point that you make
stems, I think, from a misunderstanding of
the way equalization works. Equalization
does not mean that a political unit like
Baltimore City ^ets less. What undervalua-
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tion equalization means is that the under-
valued county gets more. Now, the ques-
tion then turns on where does the more
come from and the more comes from the
general funds of the State which are pro-
vided by and large by your county, by my
county of Baltimore City and Prince
George's County, but it is not a question
of anybody getting less. Do I make that
point clear?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Is it not
a fact if Carroll County gets more, some
other political subdivision must get less?
DELEGATE CASE: No.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Are we
not dealing with one hundred per cent?
DELEGATE CASE: No, you are deal-
ing with a requirement in the educational
field. Let us say that there must be three
hundred and seventy dollars multiplied by
the number of students in that particular
county. This is not one hundred per cent.
This is open ended. It is open ended so
an undervaluation or an underassessment
means, let me state it again. Where you
have a county, I do not like to pick any
one county, but let us say County "X". If
County "X" assesses it so that it is con-
sciously undervalued and that valuation
base is the determinative factor in the
sharing of state revenues then because it
is undervalued, it will receive more state
revenues than it otherwise would. This is
not to say that Baltimore City receives, or
any other place receives, less. What it
means is that there is more state money
that has to be found somewhere and should
be found and the taxpayers of the State
and the general taxpayers are going to
have to pay it.
THE CHAIRMAN: In other words,
Delegate Macdonald, the appropriation for
the state equalization fund must be greater.
Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: And that
would be collected from the other tax-
payers.
DELEGATE CASE: General taxpayers.
That is correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Pullen.
DELEGATE PULLEN: Mr. Case, is it
not true that the amount of money coming
from the State goes to every county in
accordance with the deeds in that par-
ticular county by a formula. In other
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