3462

VETOES

Weaver v. Prince George's County, 281 Md. 349 (1977), the
court defined a property tax as "a charge on the owner of
property by reason of his ownership alone without regard to
any use that might be made of it...." Id. at 357. Excise
taxes include taxes on the "exercise of incidents of
ownership short of mere ownership itself." Herman v. Mayor
and City Council of Baltimore, supra at 197-198.

"[T]he property tax and the excise tax may be
differentiated by the methods used to impose them and
to fix their amount. Thus, it has been held that where
a tax is levied directly by the Legislature without
assessment and is measured by the extent to which a
privilege is exercised by a taxpayer without regard to
the nature or value of his assets, it is an excise.
Where, however, the tax is computed upon a valuation of
the property and is assessed by assessors, and where
the failure to pay the tax results in a lien against
the property, it is a property tax, even though a
privilege might be included in the valuation." Weaver
v. Prince George's County, supra at 358.

For the following reasons, we believe that Senate Bill
850 is a property tax measure. First, the bill provides
that the tax is to be determined "with respect to each
parcel." (Lines 109-110). The tax, therefore, is not
imposed directly by the Legislature or the County
Commissioners; rather the bill apparently contemplates that
there will be an assessment of the individual units as is
traditionally the case with a true property tax. Second,
the bill provides that the unpaid taxes constitute a lien
upon the affected real estate. The bill provides that the
lien is to be enforced in the same manner as other liens on
real property. Article 81, § 70(a) and (c)(2). Third, the
site value tax is payable at a specific date and is payable
in the same manner as "regular property taxes." Fourth, the
bill contemplates that the measure of the tax is to be based
on the value of the land. Indeed, the tax is labeled a
"site value tax." By imposing a tax directly on the real
property, the tax authorized by the bill does not seem to
reflect "the extent to which a privilege is exercised by the
taxpayer without regard to the nature or value of his
assets." Weaver v. Prince George's County, supra. at 358.

Since the site value tax is a property tax, it must
comport with the requirements of Articles 15 and 24 of the
Maryland Declaration of Rights and the Equal Protection
Clause of the United States Constitution. These provisions
require that any class or subclass of property created by
the General Assembly must rest on some reasonable
consideration of difference or policy. See National Can
Corp. v. State Tax Commissioners, 220 Md. 418, 429-30
(1959). The classification set forth in Senate Bill 850 is
of real estate upon which there is a mobile home. In County
Commissioners v. English, 182 Md. 514 (1943), the Court of