Gould v. Mayor of Baltimore

Robinson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The Act of 1861, chap. 94, provides, that “all taxes which may be levied in the city of Baltimore, shall be collected within four years from the levying of the same; and the collection of taxes shall not be enforced by law after the lapse of said four years.” ³⁸⁰ The question on this appeal, is whether an assessment made upon the owner of adjacent property to defray the expenses incident to paving streets, is a tax within the meaning of this Act, the collection of which must be enforced within the time prescribed by the statute. The right to make such assessments is undoubtedly an exercise of the taxing power, but an assessment thus made differs from a general tax levied for State and city purposes. The latter is a tax imposed on all persons within the territorial limits according to the value of their property, in consideration of the protection, which the government affords alike to all.

A local assessment, on the other hand, is a tax levied occasionally as maybe required upon a limited class of persons interested in local improvement, and who are presumed to be benefited by the improvement over and above the ordinary benefit, which the community in general derive from the expenditure of the money. In the payment of the assessment thus made, the adjacent owner is supposed to be compensated by the enhanced value of his property, arising from the improvement. And hence, it has been uniformly held that the word taxes, whether used in an Act of the Legislature, or the charter of a company exempting it from taxation, does not embrace such local assessments, unless there be something in the statute or charter to indicate such an intention. In re Mayor, &c. of New York, 11 John., 77 ; Pray vs. The Northern Liberties, 31 Penna., 69; Bridgeport vs. N. Y. & N. H. R. R. Co., 36