Plains Township v. Wilkes-Barre Area School District
Plains Township v. Wilkes-Barre Area School District
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Plains Township, Luzerne County, filed its petition for a declaratory judgment that it should receive all of the wage, real estate transfer and flat rate occupation taxes collected from the subjects of such taxes within its , boundaries during the year 1971, and that Wilkes-Barre Area School District should be entitled to none of said revenues. The court below gave judgment for the respondent school district and the township has appealed.
Wilkes-Barre Area School District is a reorganized district established as of June 1,1971, pursuant to Subdivision I (eye) of Article II. of the Public School Code of 1949, Act of March 10, 1949, P. L. 30, added by Act of August 8, 1963, P. L. 564, §3, 24 P.S. §2-290 et seq. Included among the former districts constituting the reorganized district was the Plains Township School District.
Plains Township had for a number of years prior to 1971 imposed the wage, real estate transfer and flat rate occupation taxes here in question, all by authority of The Local Tax Enabling Act, Act of December 31, 1965, P. L. 1257, 53 P.S. §6901 et seq. By the same authority, Plains Township School District had imposed the same taxes, at least from and after January 1, 1969. Therefore, Plains Township and Plains School District from January 1, 1969 (and perhaps from an earlier date) and until July 1, 1971
The township’s brief makes one argument, to wit, that Section 8 of The Local Tax Enabling Act, 53 P;S. §6908, requires that a school district desiring to levy
A copy of a resolution of the Township Board of Supervisors, adopted June 30, 1971, attached to the pe
Affirmed.
From and after this date the tax collector by direction of the township supervisors collected the school district’s share but held the same in escrow pending the outcome of this litigation.
It is also clear that there was no lapse in the school district’s collection of these taxes after first enactment
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
I respectfully dissent. From the period of December 30, 1970 to June 1, 1971, the Plains Township School District was in existence and did equally share with the Plains Township Board of Commissioners certain collected taxes (earned income, real estate transfer and right to work) which had been legally imposed on the residents of Plains Township. Thereafter, Plains Township School District merged with six other school districts into a new school district known as the Wilkes-Barre Area School District. This new school district did nothing to enact or reenact the taxes which the former, but now nonexistent, Plains Township School District had enacted.
The lower court concluded that Wilkes-Barre Area School District is the legal successor to Plains Township School District and hence nothing need be done by the new school district relative to its right to the taxes
. The majority directs attention to Section 298(a) of subdivision (I) of article II of. the Public School Code, Act Of March TO, 1949, P. L. 30, added 1963, August 8, B. L. 564, §3, as amended by the Act. of June 2, 1965, P;.L. 86, §1, 24 P.S. §2-298(a),
I can see the practicality of the result reached here, but I hold to the view that taxes must be imposed in accordance with the provisions of the law authorizing their imposition. The Wilkes-Barre Area School District not only did nothing to impose any taxes on the residents of Plains Township but did not even give notice to the Board of Commissioners of Plains Township that it intended, as the successor of the Plains Township School District, to claim one-half of the taxes being collected. If the majority view is correct and if, as was indicated at oral argument, all of the component former school districts were not imposing some or all of the taxes formerly being collected by the Plains Township School District, then the newly established school district would, for example, be receiving taxes computed on earned income from some of the residents of the new district while, at the same time, other residents would not be paying any tax based on earned income. This result is certainly not supportable and, on its face, is violative of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and of the uniformity provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
It is the Legislature that must provide that uniform taxes levied by component former school districts shall continue in force and accrue to the newly established school district. In my view, the Legislature has not so provided here.
‘'§2-298. Property and indebtedness and rental obligations of former school districts
“(a)' Except as otherwise provided in this section, all real and personal. property,. indebtedness , and- rental obligations ■ to an approved school building authority or nonprofit corporation, if any, of former school districts composing any school district constituted and deemed established pursuant to this subdivision (i) shall beeoine the-property, indebtedness and rental obligations of such newly ■ established school district. All rights of creditors against any of the component former school districts shall be preserved against the newly established, school district. All property theretofore vested in the component former school districts shall become vested in the newly established school district, and all debts and taxes owing to the component former School districts, uncollected in the several component, former school districts, and all moneys in the treasuries of the component former school districts, shall be paid to the treas-. u'rei; of the newly established school district.”
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.