Method of assessment of property of railroad companies for purposes of county and municipal taxation.

(b) The value of the property located in each county or municipality and the share of the rolling stock and personal property thus ascertained and apportioned to each of such counties or municipalities shall be the amount to be taxed to the extent of the assessment in each county and municipality. History. Ga. L. 1889, p. 29, § 3; Civil Code 1895, § 786; Civil Code 1910, § 1038; Code 1933, § 92-2703; Code 1933, § 91A-2211, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1980, p. 10, § 15; Ga. L. 1988, p. 1568, § 10. Editor’s notes. Ga. L. 1988, p. 1568, § 15, not codified by the General Assembly, provided that the Act “shall apply to all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 1989.” JUDICIAL DECISIONS Constitutionality. — Provision for distributing for taxation purposes the rolling stock and other unlocated personal property of a railway company, to and for the benefit of the counties traversed by the railroad, does not violate the provision in U.S. Const., amend. 14, that no state deny to any person within the state’s jurisdiction the equal protection of the state’s laws. Columbus S. Ry. v. Wright, 151 U.S. 470, 14 S. Ct. 396, 38 L. Ed. 238, 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2073 (1894). Section contemplates distinction between fixed and movable personalty. — Statute seems to contemplate that a railroad has two kinds of personalty; “located,” having a fixed and actual situs or abiding place for the time being; and “unlocated,” being movable like rolling stock and frequently shifting its place. The scheme of the statute is to tax the located property of the railroad, real and personal, in each county where it is situated, at the county rate of taxation of force in that county, and to apportion the transitory, frequently moving personalty, in fair proportion among the several counties. Having no fixed situs, it is absolutely right to apportion it, and that is really all that could be appropriately done with it for taxing purposes. Columbus S. Ry. v. Wright, 89 Ga. 574, 15 S.E. 293, 1892 Ga. LEXIS 410 (1892), aff'd, 151 U.S. 470, 14 S. Ct. 396, 38 L. Ed. 238, 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2073 (1894); Greene County v. Wright, 126 Ga. 504, 54 S.E. 951, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 427 (1906). Effect of movability and use of property. — Located property is to be taxed in the county or municipality where located, without reference to whether the property is used for railroad purposes or whether the property be real property or personal property, and the unlocated property is to be distributed to the different counties or municipalities. Georgia R.R. & Banking Co. v. Wright, 125 Ga. 589, 54 S.E. 52, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 229 (1906), rev'd, 207 U.S. 127, 28 S. Ct. 47, 52 L. Ed. 134, 1907 U.S. LEXIS 1209 (1907). Sleeping cars with no fixed situs in state not taxable. — Commissioner has no authority to assess sleeping cars for county taxation, when the cars have no fixed situs in this state but are temporarily out of train in a county, the assessment being based on average number and average value of the cars out of the train. Forrester v. Pullman Co., 192 Ga. 221, 15 S.E.2d 185, 1941 Ga. LEXIS 443 (1941). Stock in a nonresident railroad corporation owned by a domestic railroad company is taxable for county and municipal purposes in that county and city wherein the principal office of such corporation is fixed by the corporation’s charter or by-law. Such property is “located” property in the meaning of this statute. Greene County v. Wright, 126 Ga. 504, 54 S.E. 951, 1906 Ga. LEXIS 427 (1906). Effect of reassessment by the commissioner. — Comptroller general (now commissioner) must make the comptroller’s assessment upon the basis of the value given by the returns, and if the valuation of the property given in a return is rejected and, by means of the legal machinery provided, such property is assessed at a higher valuation than that shown by the return, the effect will be to correspondingly increase the proportionate valuation of the property in the different counties and municipalities through which the railroad runs. But the proportion which the value of the property situated in those counties and municipalities bears to the value of the entire property is determined by the return, and cannot be altered by the comptroller general (now commissioner). City of Atlanta v. Wright, 119 Ga. 207, 45 S.E. 994, 1903 Ga. LEXIS 88 (1903). RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. 71 Am. Jur. 2d, State and Local Taxation, §§ 381, 382. C.J.S. 84 C.J.S., Taxation, §§ 362 et seq., 413, 467, 534. ALR. What property of electric, gas, water, telephone, or street railway company constitutes real property for taxation purposes, 57 A.L.R. 869. Situs of aircraft, rolling stock, and vessels for purposes of property taxation, 3 A.L.R.4th 837.