52

There is no supervision by any State officer and often is the
property of the deceased valued far below its actual value.

In the city of Baltimore there are appraisers appointed, four
in number, whose duties require all of their time. In the counties
appraisers are appointed as occasion demands and friends are often
named; with the result that the amount of the appraisement is not
the "clear value" of the property belonging to the decedent. The
criticism is directed mainly against the valuation of real estate
owned by the deceased, rather than valuation of the personal prop-
erty, but even in cases of personal property appraisements is there
opportunity for larger returns.

It would seem as though the condition now existing could be
corrected by conferring on the State Tax Commission the power of
making investigation and appraisement with the local appraisers,
appointed by the Court, prior to the time that the report or appraise-
ment is filed by such officers; and in case of disagreement, there
would be the opportunity to the State to object to the appraisement
before it became final.

APPEALS

Under the provisions of Section 238 of the act creating the
State Tax Commission, appeals from assessments of the local
authorities are made to the State Tax Commission instead of to the
Baltimore City Court, in case the property lies in Baltimore City,
or to the Circuit Court for the counties should the property lie in
the counties. These appeals were taken to 24 courts throughout the
Slate, and now all of this work is centered in the State Tax Com-
mission,

Since the organization of the Commission there have been 313
appeals from assessments. A greater number of these appeals have
been appeals from the assessments of the Appeal Tax Court in Balti-
more City, but there have been numerous appeals from the counties.

The court costs heretofore incurred in appeals to the courts
amounted in the aggregate to a large sum of money, and as there
are no costs in appeals to the State Tax Commission, the amount of
savings to the taxpayers is considerable.