Court Opinion

ID: 9518052
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:41:44.989698+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:27:09.161991
License: Public Domain

Justice SAYLOR,
dissenting.
On the question of whether Act 193 of 2004 violates the Pennsylvania Constitution’s single-subject rule, I find this to be a close case and believe that the majority and Mr. Justice Baer both supply reasoned arguments in support of their respective positions. For the following reasons, however, I ultimately favor the view articulated by Justice Baer, that the act contains multiple subjects in violation of Article III, Section 3, and join his opinion except as noted below.
It is true, as the majority emphasizes, that both substantive sections of the bill amend the First Class City Home Rule Act to enhance or delimit the specific powers of first-class cities: Section 1 increases the monetary ceiling for fines and forfeitures resulting from violations of city ordinances, rules, and regulations, and Section 2 gives the city’s legislative body standing to challenge decisions of the zoning hearing board. Certainly, the first of these items constitutes a relatively minor modification to the Home Rule Act. The second one also appears, at first glance, to represent a slight adjustment to a first-class city’s powers. If that were the extent of the issue, I would conclude that, while the specific type of municipal authority addressed in each section is arguably unrelated to the other, they are permissible in one bill insofar as both pertain specifically to the local powers of the governing bodies in cities of the first class. See generally City of Phila. v. Commonwealth, 575 Pa. 542, 578, 838 A.2d 566, 588 (2003) (“We believe that exercising deference by hypothesizing reasonably broad topics in this manner is appropriate to some degree, because it helps ensure that Article III does not become a license for the judiciary to ‘exercise a pedantic tyranny’ over the efforts of the Legislature.” (quoting In re *125Commonwealth, Dep’t of Transp., 511 Pa. 620, 626, 515 A.2d 899, 902 (1986))).
The difficulty, for me, arises from the broader implications of the change in standing. Section 2 of the bill (adding Section 17.1 to the Home Rule Act) alters the class of parties with standing to pursue zoning appeals, as previously controlled by Section 14-1807(1) of Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter. It does this by, at a minimum, granting standing to the city’s legislative body. See 53 P.S. § 13131.1. Additionally, according to the construction of that provision adopted by both the majority and Justice Baer, it removes the power of first class cities broadly to provide for taxpayer standing relative to zoning disputes. See Majority Opinion, at 101-02, 977 A.2d at 1143; Concurring and Dissenting Opinion, at 118-19, 977 A.2d at 1153 (Baer, J.). One argument interposed against the enforceability of the act as interpreted thusly is that taxpayer standing within a first class city is a matter of purely local concern and, therefore, the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter’s provision in this regard may not be superseded by state law. See Brief for Appellant at 39. The majority answers this contention by observing that standing to pursue a zoning appeal in the state’s Unified Judicial System has a statewide dynamic, as it defines the class of parties authorized to invoke the resources of the Commonwealth’s judiciary as a whole, including its appellate courts. See Majority Opinion, at 103-04, 977 A.2d at 1144.1 Thus, it is apparent that, although in *126one sense Section 2 of Act 193 is limited to amending the specific powers of first class cities — or their governing bodies — on matters of purely local interest, in a broader sense that provision (and only that provision) touches on matters of statewide concern.
This is not to say that the General Assembly could never include two provisions in a single bill where only one has a statewide dynamic. Here, however, the two substantive sections of Act 193 address essentially unrelated topics, and the second section only controls access to a branch of the Commonwealth’s government. Under these circumstances, I would conclude that the latter provision is simply too far removed from the former to satisfy the germaneness test that this Court has developed in relation to Article III, Section 3’s single-subject rule.
Finally, under the above analysis I would find that the bill violates the single-subject rule regardless of whether Section 2’s narrow definition of “aggrieved person” was intended to eliminate taxpayer standing as granted by Section 14-2807 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. This is because, either way, Section 2 grants standing to a city entity (the City Council) that did not previously have standing. Accordingly, I would decline to reach the statutory construction issue. In all other respects I join Justice Baer’s concurring and dissenting opinion.

. Although, for the reasons below, I ultimately find it unnecessary to determine whether the Legislature intended, through Section 2 of the bill, to eliminate taxpayer standing in first-class cities, and although I agree with the majority's observations concerning the statute's statewide effect, I do not believe it is necessary to predicate the statute’s enforceability in this respect on its non-local ramifications. As a general rule, the Legislature may restrict a city’s home rule powers by simply amending the appropriate enabling act, see Ortiz v. Commonwealth, 545 Pa. 279, 285, 681 A.2d 152, 156 (1996); Cali v. City of Phila., 406 Pa. 290, 297-98, 177 A.2d 824, 828 (1962); see also City of Phila. v. Schweiker, 579 Pa. 591, 611, 858 A.2d 75, 87 (2004) (noting that the General Assembly “retains express constitutional authority to limit the scope of any municipality's home rule governance”), or, indeed, by amending any enactment affecting only that class of city, see id. at 611, 858 at 87-88 (distinguishing generally-applicable state laws from those pertaining only to first-class cities for purposes of the supersession analysis).