Section 14 of ordinance #3017 (1856) provided that the Comptroller, "when satisfied that errors have been committed in the assessment of taxes, or in the bills for taxes ... or where several portions of property belonging to different persons have been assessed in one parcel, or when property has been omitted to be assessed, report the same to the council, and make such alteration or additional assessment as may be just."

A similar provision apparently existed in the pre-1856 laws governing the duties and powers of the Comptroller. This power to alter tax bills appears to have been separate and apart from the powers to adjust or correct assessments that were exercised by the Board of Assessors and the Board of Supervisors of Assessments.

The records are manuscript volumes, one book for each tax year for the period 1854-1860. The record for the taxes of 1856 is missing. Generally each book gives the date that alterations were made, the number of the tax bill, the name of the taxpayer, and the "new" amounts of tax due. An index is included in the volume for 1855 taxes.