18                          JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS                 [Dec. 16

"During the period of expiration and the period of active production
of gas, the tax hereby imposed is in lieu of all other taxes upon the
gas, the property rights attached thereto or inherent therein, and the
values created thereby, upon all leases or rights to develop and oper-
ate any lands for gas, the values created thereby and the property
right attached thereto or inherent therein. After the period of active
production of gas and during such times as no gas is being produced,
the general property tax laws shall prevail as to all property rights
and values." (emphasis supplied)

Article 15 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights states in per-
tinent part that:

"..... the General Assembly shall, by uniform rules, provide for the
separate assessment, classification and subclassification of land, im-
provements 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 Counties and
by the City of Baltimore for their respective purposes, shall be uni-
form within each class or subclass of land, improvements on land and
personal property which the respective taxing powers may have di-
rected to be subjected to the tax levy; yet fines, duties or taxes may
properly and justly be imposed, or laid with a political view for the
good government and benefit of the community."

The object of this article is to provide equality in taxation, and to
prevent, as far as possible, the burden of supporting the government from
falling upon some individuals, to the exclusion or exemption of others.
Baltimore City v. Starr Church, 106 Md. 281.

The Constitution of Maryland and the Federal Constitution do not
prevent the creation of an exemption so long as it applies equally to all
in a class, Williams v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 289 U.S. 36,
and the Legislature can exempt certain classes of persons or corporations
from the payment of taxes upon certain species of property where the
discrimination is founded upon public policy or a reasonable distinction,
and does not amount to an arbitrary distinction, Mayor and City Council
of Baltimore v. German-American Fire Insurance Co., 132 Md. 380. The
constitutional requirement, however, is violated wherever particular per-
sons or properties, selected arbitrarily from a class on which the burden
of taxation is imposed, have been exempted therefrom. Williams v. Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore, supra; Baltimore City v. Starr Church,
supra.

It is our opinion that House Bill 387 creates an exemption from State
taxation of gas and gas producing properties in one county and such an
exemption is not pursuant to any public policy, either enunciated or im-
plied, and is, therefore, discriminatory. Factually, the bill would create
a situation where taxpayers of gas and gas producing properties in Alle-
gany County are afforded favorable tax treatment which would not be
available to taxpayers in vther counties of the State. The converse of this
situation existed in Casey Development Corp. v. Montgomery County, 212
Md. 138, where the Court of Appeals held unconstitutional a provision of
the Montgomery County Code which required improvements on land which
became substantially completed between July 1 and September 30 in each
year to be subject to taxation at ³/₄ of the regular rate levied that year for
State purposes. In striking down the provision as violative of Article 15
of the Declaration of Rights the Court said: