American Newspapers, Inc. v. State Tax Commission

Sloan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from an order of the Baltimore City Court, affirming an assessment by the State Tax Commission of the property of the American Newspapers, Incorporated, which issues and publishes in Baltimore a newspaper, known as the “News-Post” daily for six days a week, Monday to Saturday, both inclusive, and a weekly newspaper on Sundays known as the “Sunday American.” The appellant, American Newspapers, Inc., had made a claim for exemption from taxation of its machinery tools, and raw materials on the ground that it was a manufacturer, under Code (Supp. 19,35), art. 81, sec. 7, sub-secs. (25) and (26), Acts 1935, ch. 225, which read as follows: “(25) Tools (including mechanical tools), implements, whether worked by hand, steam or other motive power, machinery, manufacturing apparatus or engines used in manufacturing, whether temporarily idle' or not, in any ⁵⁸ county (including the City of Baltimore) in which by law, resolution or ordinance the same are or may be exempt from county or city taxation; and the County Commissioners of any county and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore are hereby authorized to pass such resolution or ordinance. “(26) Raw materials on hand and manufactured products in the hands of the manufacturer in any city and/or county in which by law, resolution or ordinance the same are or may be exempt from county and/or city taxation; provided that nothing in this subsection shall exempt any such property from State taxation or from assessment therefor.” (These subsections are a re-codification of section 169, article 81 of the Code of 1924 to the same effect), and under a local law, passed prior to the general law, and subsequently amended, and now appearing as section 6(28) (c), article 4, Code of Public Local Laws, to the same effect, and still in force in Baltimore City. In pursuance of this local law, the Mayor and City Council enacted an ordinance, No. 140 (Baltimore City Code of 1928, art. 46, sec. 80), providing for the exemption from taxation of the machinery and tools of manufacturers, which excepted gas and electric companies, and printers and publishers “of any journal or other periodical or other periodical publication.” In Frederick Electric Light & Power Co. v Frederick, 84 Md. 599 , 36 A. 362 , it was held that an electric light company was not a manufacturing industry, and therefore not entitled to such exemption, and the same rule had been applied to the gasometers and mains of a gas company in Consolidated Gas Co. v. Baltimore, 62 Md. 588 .

The statutes made no exceptions, and the local law, Pub. Loc. Laws, art. 4, sec. 6(28) (c), authorized the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore “To provide by general ordinance * * * for the abatement of any or all taxes levied * * * upon any or all personal property, * * * actually employed or used in the business of manufacturing in said city.” The plain meaning of this is that the city could not exempt some manufacturing businesses and exclude ⁵⁹ others from the benefit of the act, but that the ordinance should be general in its nature, and whatever the property exempted, it should be to all manufacturers alike. The exception of “any journal or other periodical” does not depend on the ordinance, but whether in fact it is a “manufacturing business,” within the meaning of the statute.

The facts in Rowe Co. v. State Tax Commission, 149 Md. 251 , 131 A. 509 , were not the same as those presented here, but the test applied in determining whether the publisher was a manufacturer is just as applicable here as it was there. In that case this court, in an opinion by Judge Offutt (at page 260 of 149 Md., 131 A. 509, 512) said: “A publisher may be a manufacturer or he may not, accordingly as he does or does