Assessment

Determining the value of a person's property or occupation for the purpose of levying a tax. Determining the share of a tax to be paid by each individual.

Laying a tax

Adjusting the shares of a contribution by several towards a common beneficial object according to the benefit received. An assessment is an official estimate of the sums which are to constitute the basis of an apportionment of a tax between the individual subjects of taxation within the district. It does not of itself lay the charge upon either person or property, but is a step preliminary thereto, and which is essential to the apportionment; Evansville & I. R. Co. v. Hays, 118 Ind. 214, 20 N. E. 736. As the' word is more commonly employed, an assessment consists in the two processes of listing the persons, property, etc., to be taxed,' and of estimating the sums which are to be the guide in an apportionment of the tax between them; City of Chicago v. Fishburn, 189 111.

367, 59 N. E. 791; Pomeroy Coal Co. v. Emlen, 44 Kan. 123, 24 Pac'340; State v. R. Co., 54 S. C. 564, 32 S. E. 691.

To assess a tax is to determine what a taxpayer shall contribute to the public; and to levy a tax is to make a record of this determination and to extend the same against his property; Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Klein, 52 Neb. 258, 71 N. W. 1069. A local assessment can only be levied upon land. It cannot, as a tax can, be made a personal liability of the taxpayer. A tax is levied over a whole state, or a political subdivision. A local assessment is levied on property situated in a district created for the express purpose of the levy, and possessing no other existence than to be the exceptional both as to time and locality; It is brought into being to accomplish a particular purpose. A tax is levied, collected, and administered by a public agency; a local assessment is made by an authority ab extra. Yet it is like a tax in that it is imposed under an authority derived from the legislature. It is like a tax in that it must be levied for a public purpose, and must be apportioned by some reasonable rule. It is unlike a tax in that the proceeds must be expended in an improvement from which a benefit, clearly exceptive and plainly perceived, must enure to the property upon which it is imposed; Town of Macon v. Patty, 57 Miss. 378, 34 Am. Rep. 451 (a leading case). Though local assessments are laid under the taxing power, and are, in a certain sense, taxes, yet they are a peculiar class of taxes, and not within the meaning of that term as it is usually employed; Mayor, etc., of Birmingham v. Klein, 89 Ala. 461, 7 South. 3S6, 8 L. R. A. 369; Holley v. County of Orange, 106 Cal. 420, 39 Pac. 790; Nichols v. City of Bridgeport, 23 Conn. 189, 60 Am. Dec. 636; City Council of Augusta v. Murphey, 79 Ga. 101, 3 S. E. 326; Dempster v. Chicago, 175 111. 278, 51 N. E. 710; Board of Com'rs of Monroe County v. Harrell, 147 Ind. 500, 46 N. E. 124; Gosnell v. City of Louisville, 104 Ky. 201, 46 S. W. 722; Jones v. City of Boston, 104 Mass. 461; Kansas City v. Bacon, 147 Mo. 259, 48 S. W. 860; Mann v. Jersey City, 24 N. J. L. 662; City of Raleigh v. Peace, 110 N. C. 32, 14 S. E. 521, 17 L. R. A. 330; Raymond v. City of Cleveland, 42 Ohio St. 522; Beaumont v. Wilkes-Barre City, 142 Pa. 198, 21 Atl. 888; Heller v. City of Milwaukee, 96 Wis. 134, 70 N. W. 1111; as where a mining lease required a lessee to pay taxes, duties and imposts on coal mined, the mining improvements, and the surface and coal land itself, it was held not to require him to pay municipal assessments for paving a street or constructing a sewer; Pettibone v. Smith, 150 Pa. 118, 24 Atl. 693, 17 L. R. A. 423; and a devise requiring the life tenant to pay all necessary taxes on the property was held not to include assessments for sewers and curbing; Chambers v. Chambers, 20 R. I. 370, 39 Atl. 243; Chamberlin v. Gleason, 163 N. Y. 214, 57 N. E. 487. But "taxes" was held to include a sewer assessment in an agreement to convey a good title to land free from all mortgage encumbrances, taxes and mechanic's liens; Williams v. Monk, 179 Mass. 22, 60 N. E. 394. The power to make special assessments for public improvements is within the taxing power of the state; People v. Mayor, etc., of Brooklyn, 4 N. Y. 419, 55 Am. Dec. 266, note; People v. Pitt, 169 N. Y. 521, 62 N. E. 662, 58