Article 15 of the Maryland Declara-
tion of Rights now provides, in relevant
part:
"... that the General Assembly
shall, by uniform rules, provide for the
separate assessment, classification and
sub-classification of land, improve-
ments on land and personal property,
as it may deem proper; and all taxes
thereafter provided to be levied by the
State for the support of the general
State Government, and by the Coun-
ties and by the City of Baltimore for
their respective purposes, shall be uni-
form within each class or sub-class of
land, improvements on land and per-
sonal property which the respective
taxing powers may have directed to be
subjected to the tax levy . . . ."
Prior to 1960, Article 15 of the Mary-
land Declaration of Rights provided, in
relevant part:
"... that the General Assembly
shall, by uniform rules, provide for
1 This article was prepared for the Commis-
sion by Stephen H. Sachs, Commission re-
porter for the Committee on State Finance and
Taxation; United States Attorney for the Dis-
trict of Maryland; B.A., 1954, Haverford Col-
lege; New College, Oxford, 1954-55, United
States Government (Fulbright) Grant; LL.B.,
1960, Yale University.
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separate assessment of land and classi-
fication and sub-classifications of im-
provements on land and personal prop-
erty, as it may deem proper; and all
taxes thereafter provided to be levied
by the State for the support of the
general State Government, and by the
Counties and by the City of Baltimore
for their respective purposes, shall be
uniform as to land within the taxing
district, and uniform within the class or
sub-class of improvements on land and
personal property which the respective
taxing powers may have directed to
be subjected to the tax levy . . . ."
In 1960, as a result of the decision in
the Maryland Court of Appeals in State
Tax Commission v. Gales, Article 15 took
its present form and the following lan-
guage was added to Article 43 of the
Declaration of Rights:
"The legislature may provide that
land actively devoted to farm or agri-
cultural use shall be assessed on the
basis of such use and shall not be
assessed as if subdivided."2
Gales held that since the then existing
Article 15 required a uniform assessment
of real property, any assessment of a sig-
2 State Tax Comm'n v. Gales, 222 Md.
543 (1960).
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