The State Tax Commission was created by the General Assembly
of 1914, Chapter 841.

The Act creating the Commission designated the personnel of the
first Board, which was composed of Arthur P. German, Jr., as Chair-
man, Lewin W. Wickes, and Oscar Leser, who was the minority mem-
ber. As the terms of the several Commissioners expire the Governor
appoints a successor for a term of six years from the date of appoint-
ment. No more than two Commissioners can be of the same political
faith.

The Commission elects a Secretary and appoints such employees as
may be necessary.

An appeal lies directly to the State Tax Commission from all as-
sessments entered by the County Commissioners of the several coun-
ties or by the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore City, and the determina-
tion by the Commission as regards the assessment of property is final,
as an appeal from a decision by the Commission exists only on ques-
tions of law.

In August, 1916, the Commission ordered a re-assessment of real
estate of the several counties of the State of Maryland.. The legality
of this order was attacked but the Commission's authority was af-
firmed by the Court of Appeals of Maryland in the case of State Tax
Commission versus Lowenstein, 129 Md., 244. Subsequently in De-
cember, 1917, the Commission ordered a general re-assessment of per-
sonal property, tangible and intangible, owned or held by residents of
the twenty-three counties of Maryland.

Besides the right to bring about general equalization, the Commis-
sion has the power to establish forms of schedules, notices, etc., and)
also of assessment and collection books; to establish a uniform system
of accounts; to require that all property in the State be reviewed for
re-assessment at least once in every five years; to confer with State of-
ficials of this State and taxing authorities of other States in order to
bring about a uniform system of taxation and to provide for a system
of inspection of licenses.

The Commission has devised a method of assessing business cor-
porations in accordance with the Act passed at the session of 1914, on
their tangible assets instead of on their share valuation.

Under the Act of 1924, the duty of assessing rolling stock of steam
railroads was placed upon the Commission. The initial assessment made
by the Commission was for the year 1925, and the assessment placed
was approximately $11,500,000, or an increase of $4,000,000 over the
assessment for the year 1924 as made by the various Boards of County
Commissioners and the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore City.

It appoints a Supervisor of Assessments for each county of the
State from a list of five residents of each county, nominated by the
respective Boards of County Commissioners. The salaries of the su-
pervisors are paid by the County Commissioners and are based upon
the value of the assessable property under the jurisdiction of the re-
spective supervisors. It is the function of the supervisors to advise
the Commission of assessments as compared with valuation, to report
all sales of property and to perform such other duties as may be as-
signed to them by the Commission.