133

8.—17b

as practicable in February the total assessed values are transmitted to the Comptroller in order that the tax-rate ordinance may be prepared for submission to the Board of Aldermen. The Board of Aldermen meet on the Ist March, and pass the ordinance fixing the tax rate. Immediately the Deputies and their clerks compute the taxes which must be paid in respect of each separately assessed parcel of real estate. For this purpose rate cards are used, which show the amount of the tax on each amount from $1 to $100 and on multiples ; in such fashion the computation of taxes is rendered as easy as possible. During the year the Deputies and their clerks prepare new field-books, and as early as practicable, commence the preparation of the next annual record and new assessment rolls. Real Estate of Corporations. Two Deputies are assigned to the assessment of the real estate of corporations, and arc assisted by clerks. The class of property thus described consists of all improvements in streets, waterways, and public places other than special franchises, also of all rights-of-way of public service corporations which extend throughout more than one block. Where the right-of-way of a railroad runs into a station or freight house, such property is assigned to the Deputy in charge of the real estate of corporations. The Deputy Tax Commissioners are required to report the value of the land of the rights-of-way of public service corporations computed in harmony with the value of adjacent land. The Deputy in charge Of the assessment of this property uses the values so reported to him and adds the value of the improvements whatever they may be. The Deputy in charge of this bureau, moreover, is required to confer from time to time with the employees of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, and furnish them with any information in his possession concerning special franchises, and to obtain from the State Board any information useful to him in the determination of the value of the property he is assigned to assess. Special Franchises. Special franchises consist of rails, pipes, wires, and the like situated in streets, waterways, and public places, together with the privilege of building, maintaining, and operating the public service performed by the aid of such improvements. The special franchise, therefore, includes both the tangible property in streets and public places of the character described and the value of the privilege of operating it. The State Board of Tax Commissioners assesses special franchises as real estate, and certifies the assessments to the local assessors ; the local assessors include the special franchise assessments in the local assessment rolls. It is thereupon taxed at the same rate and in the same manner as other real estate. it is the duty of the State Board of Tax Commissioners in assessing special franchises to assess them at their full value, and then to equalize such assessments with the other real property in the particular tax district. Thus if the State Board finds that other real property is assessed at 90 per cent, of its full value, the special franchise assessments are reduced to 90 per cent, of the full value found by the State Board of Tax Commissioners. The Preparation of Tax Maps. At the time the City of New York as now constituted was created in 1898 by the consolidation of the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long island City, and other municipalities, the Department of Taxes and Assessments was created, and it was made the custodian of all books, maps, assessment rolls, files, and records relating to assessments which were in use in any of the municipal Corporations consolidated. Prior to consolidation in a large part of the territory there were no tax maps at all. Assessments were made as in most country towns throughout the State of New York to-day by arranging in alphabetical order the names of the owners of real estate and opposite the name of each owner a description of the various parcels of land owned by him. By the charter, which applied to the consolidated city, it was provided that assessments thereafter should be in rem —that is to say, against the land itself and not against the owner by name. It became necessary, therefore, to provide tax maps wherever they did not exist, and the charter gave broad general powers for the making of such tax maps and for assessment against the property itself. Tho Deputy Tax Commissioners were required by the charter to assess each parcel of real estate, giving " street, lot, ward, town, and map number of such real estate embraced within their districts, together with the name of the owner or occupant if known." The Department of Taxes and Assessments was required to appoint a Surveyor whose duty it should be to make necessary surveys and corrections of the ward maps, and also to make all new maps which might be required for the more accurate assessment of real estate within the territory of the city. In the old City of New York there had been instituted by chapter 166 of the laws of 1890 a system of recording and indexing instruments affecting land. In substance this system was established for the assessment of real estate by chapter 542 of the laws of 1892. This latter chapter provided for tax maps upon which are exhibited in sections and section numbers, block and block numbers, the separate lots or parcels of land taxed within each of the blocks. It is provided that the block once established shall not be changed unless it may be absolutely necessary by reason of changes in the boundary-lines. By the act of consolidation chapter 542 of thelaws of 1892 was extended to applyr to the whole city, but it was not made incumbent upon the Tax Department to establish the permanent tax maps required by this Act immediately. The actual procedure adopted was to make what are called tentative maps for the suburban territory wherever no maps existed, and to use the maps formerly in use wherever they were reasonably adequate for the purpose. Since consolidation the permanent tax maps have gradually been made, until to-day all of the Borough of Brooklyn is permanently mapped and all of The Bronx west of the Bronx River. As yet