13

SUPERVISORY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

The law on the statute books concerning the assessment of real
and personal property contemplated revisions and corrections at
such times as the Boards of County Commissioners in the several
counties would deem desirable,¹ This power of the Board of County
Commissioners conferred on them the right to name such assessors
for limited periods of time, or to employ them throughout the year,
Eeassessment has never been made in Maryland at regular periods,
but only when ordered by the Legislature, and the assessments of
real estate made at such reassessments remained effective until the
next reassessment, unless changed by the taxing authorities,
instances of which in the counties were extremely rare.

As general reassessments have been at long intervals, such a
power as the County Commissioners had, was very essential, but it
appears that it has not been exercised except in a most limited
manner. In some counties the County Commissioners appointed
assessors, termed assessors of new "buildings and discoverers of
personal property," while in other counties new buildings and addi-
tional personal property were placed upon the assessment books
through the active and individual work of the County Commis-
sioners. In few cases, if in any, did the County Commissioners or
the local assessors consider it a part of their duty to reassess real
property, notwithstanding great changes may have occurred in the
value of large areas of such property since the assessment was
entered at the last period of general reassessment.

The Act of 1914, Chapter 841, creating the State Tax Commis-
sion, did. not make any change in the power of assessment by the
County Commissioners nor provide for additional machinery con-
cerning assessment, but inaugurated a system of central supervision
by means of supervisors appointed for each county. These duties
are set forth in full in the Act under which the Commission is now
working and constitutes the supervisor the arm of the Commission
in his respective county. The salaries of supervisors are paid by
the localities, and they vary, being scaled upon the aggregate
amount of property in each county under supervision of the super-

¹ Art, 81, Section 204,