REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. xiii

ASSESSMENT AND LEVY OF 1903.

Statement "K" continues to demonstrate an increase in the
assessable basis of the State, aggregating at the close of the
fiscal year $673,337,299.

PUBLIC SCHOOL TAX.

Statement "L" shows- the receipts and disbursements on ac-
count of this tax during the fiscal year. The receipts during
the year were $750,408.94, which, added to the balance on hand
October 1, 1902, of $330,708.79, aggregate $1,081,117.73, or a
slight increase over that of the year previous. The disburse-
ments during the fiscal year were $734,683.05.

This tax is apportioned by the Comptroller, quarterly, viz:
October 1, January 1, March 15 and June 15, as prescribed by
Section 103 of Article 77 of the Code of Public General Laws.
Sections 98 and 102 of said Article prescribes the manner of
such apportionment.

In this connection I wish to say that a uniform method of
apportionment had been made by every Comptroller for thirty
years, viz: Under Section 102 of said Article the apportion-
ment to white schools was made upon the. basis of both the
white and colored population between the ages of five and
twenty years, while to the colored schools, under Section 98 of
said Article, the apportionment was made to "the colored
schools of the several counties and the city of Baltimore, in pro-
portion to their respective population between the ages of five
and twenty," which construction embraced only the colored
population, and not both white and colored.

During the year a writ of mandamus was issued against the
Comptroller in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel county,
directing a different mode of apportionment. The result was a
dismissal of the writ by a unanimous court.

The case was carried to the Court of Appeals, and after a
careful consideration of the question by said court, a decision
was rendered, whereby the apportionment to the white schools
should be made to the several counties and the city of Balti-
more, in proportion to their respective population, both white
and colored, between the ages of five and twenty years, and the
apportionment to the colored schools should be likewise made