16

PLATS

In none of the counties hare the County Commissioners any
plats used for assessment purposes. According to the information
of the Commission, none of the towns in Maryland have plats used
exclusively for this purpose.

Preparatory to a reassessment, the Commission had estimates
made of the probable cost of plats to be used and ascertained that
in no case could plats be made which would be suitable for less than
$10,000 a county, and these plats were not complete by any means
and this price represented the cost in the smallest counties.

The Commission has adopted a method of designation of prop-
erty which eventually should prove of great value. The Geological
Survey of Maryland has divided the State into squares, and the
Commission has availed itself of this method of division and applied
to each square a letter and a number. At the time the copy of the
existing assessments of property was prepared for the Commission
by the supervisors from the books of the County Commissioners,
each of these officials was required to designate by letter and num-
ber the location of all property. The assessment of all property
lying within a territory may be compared, irrespective of county
lines or district lines. In reporting sales also, supervisors had to
use the designation.

The Commission found great inequalities in assessment of prop-
erties in the built-up portion of Baltimore County contiguous to
Baltimore City, and also found that in many blocks all of the prop-
erty was not assessed. The supervisor of this county has partly
completed, in a highly creditable manner, plats of the several blocks,
and a copy of one of these plats is published on the following page.

COLLECTION OF TAXES

According to the provision of law as now existing, Boards of
County Commissioners and the Mayor and City Council of Balti-
more are required to levy, by resolutions and ordinance respectively,
the State tax on all property lying within their respective jurisdic-