Court Opinion

ID: 9635657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:58:31.247072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:17:20.811927
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Judge KELLEY.
I concur in the result reached by the majority which affirms the order of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. However, I believe that the Institutions of Purely Public Charity Act1 is an unconstitutional exercise by the General Assembly, to the extent that it purports to statutorily define what entities may be deemed to be “institutions of purely public charity” under the provisions of Article 8, Section 2(a)(v) of the Pennsylvania Constitution.2
As this Court has previously noted:
[T]he question of whether an entity seeking or defending a tax exemption is a “purely public charity”, within the meaning of Article 8, Section 2(a)(v) of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is a preliminary question which must be addressed before the question of whether that entity meets the qualifications of a statutory exemption can be reached. [G.D.L. Plaza Corporation v. Council Rock School District, 515 Pa. 54, 526 A.2d 1173 (1987) ]; [Hospital Utilization Project v. Commonwealth, 507 Pa. 1, 487 A.2d 1306 (1985) ]; School District of the City of Erie v. Hamot Medical Center, [144 Pa.Cmwlth. 668, 602 A.2d 407 (Pa.Cmwlth.1992) ]. As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stated:
In [Hospital Utilization Project ], which involved a different statutory exemption than that presented here, we did not decide whether the organization met the statutory qualifications for the exemption because it failed to meet the constitutional requirements. As a result the legislature lacked authority to grant an exemption which would have extended to the organization and a statute which purported to do so would have been invalid. Id. at 12-13, 487 A.2d at 1311-12. The standards set out in Hospital Utilization Project reflect the minimum constitutional qualifications for being an appropriate subject of tax exemption. They do not, of themselves, establish eligibility for exemption.
G.D.L. Plaza Corporation, 515 Pa. at 59, n. 2, 526 A.2d at 1175, n. 2.11 See also Donohugh’s Appeal, [86 Pa. at 309-10] (“[I]t is conceded that the legislature cannot go outside the class of eases in which the constitution permits exemption from taxation, but it is to be remembered that the provision of the constitution is not a grant of power to the
*324legislature, which belongs elsewhere, and is therefore to be strictly construed as in derogation of the people’s right. On the contrary, it is a restriction upon a legislative power which would otherwise be unlimited and unquestionable. It is a tying up of the legislative hand ...").
* * *
11 In this regard, it is also important to note the provisions of Article 8, Section 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution which states that, “[a]ll laws exempting property from taxation, other than the property above enumerated shall be void.” Pa. Const, art. VIII, § 5. It has long been recognized that this provision absolutely prohibits the General Assembly from providing a statutory exemption beyond those enumerated in Article 8, Section 2 of our Constitution. See, e.g., Board of Christian Education of Presbyterian Church in United States v. School District of City of Philadelphia, [171 Pa.Super. 610,] 91 A.2d 372, 374 (Pa.Super.1952) (“[T]he two sections, read together, impose limitations upon the power of the legislature to exempt property from taxation. It is beyond legislative competence to exempt more than the property used as a place of public worship or for purely charitable activities. Moreover, an exemption exists, not by virtue of the provisions of the Constitution, but only by the force of a valid statute enacted under it.”). As a result, qualifying for an exemption as a “purely public charity” must be first measured by the constitutional language, and not the statutory language. See Hospital Utilization Project, 507 Pa. at 13, 487 A.2d at 1312 (“Hence, we begin our analysis by recognizing that regardless whether HUP qualifies as a ‘charitable organization’ under [the statutory exemption], as defined by the Pennsylvania Code ..., it must first qualify under the Constitution as a ‘purely public charity’... Because we reach the conclusion in our following discussion that HUP is not a ‘purely public charity’ within the meaning of the Constitution, we do not reach whether HUP qualifies under the Pennsylvania Code definition.”)....
Community Options, Inc. v. Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review, 764 A.2d 645, 652-653 (Pa.Cmwlth.2000). See also In re Ogontz School, 361 Pa. 284, 313, 65 A.2d 150, 163 (1949) (“[A]ny act which would attempt to exempt from taxation any institution other than one of purely public charity would be unconstitutional. Justice Dean said, in White v. Smith, [189 Pa. 222, 227, 42 A. 125, 126 (1899) ]: ‘One thing is clear at the start, no matter what was the legislative language, the exemptions could not extend to any property not a “purely public charity.” ’ ”) (footnote omitted).
The authority to exempt from taxation the parcel of real property involved in this case derives from the provisions of Article 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Article V, Section 2(a) of this organic law also vests in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “[t]he supreme judicial power of the Commonwealth .... ” Pa. Const, art. V, § 2(a). Thus, the authority to determine the parameters of what entities constitute “institutions of purely public charity” under Article 8, Section (2)(v), which may then be the proper object of an exemption pursuant to the provisions of a duly enacted statute, ultimately resides in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which sits as the ultimate interpreter of the Pennsylvania Constitution. G.D.L. Plaza Corporation; Hospital Utilization Project; Community Options, Inc. See also, City of Boerne v. P.F. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 519-520, 117 S.Ct. 2157, 138 L.Ed.2d 624 (1997) (“[C]on-*325gress’ power under § 5 [of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution], however, extends only to ‘enforcing]’ the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court has described this power as ‘remedial’, South Carolina v. Katzenbach, [383 U.S. 301, 326, 86 S.Ct. 803, 15 L.Ed.2d 769 (1966) ]. The design of the Amendment and the text of § 5 are inconsistent with the suggestion that Congress has the power to decree the substance of the Fourteenth Amendment’s restrictions on the States. Legislation which alters the meaning of the Free Exercise Clause [of the First Amendment] cannot be said to be enforcing the Clause. Congress does not enforce a constitutional right by changing what the right is. It has been given the power ‘to enforce’, not the power to determine what constitutes a constitutional violation. Were it not so, what Congress would be enforcing would no longer be, in any meaningful sense, the ‘provisions of [the Fourteenth Amendment].’ While the line between measures that remedy or prevent unconstitutional actions and measures that make substantive change in the governing law is not easy to discern, and Congress must have wide latitude in determining where it lies, the distinction exists and must be observed.... ”).
Like the majority, I believe that the Hill School meets the constitutional definition of “institutions of purely public charity” as interpreted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. See Majority Op. at pp. 315-318. Likewise, I would conclude that the Hill School is a proper object of an exemption from taxation as provided in either the General County Assessment Law3 or the Institutions of Purely Public Charity Act. See Majority Op. at pp. 314-315, pp. 319-320. Accordingly, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County should be affirmed.
Judge PELLEGRINI joins in this Concurring Opinion.

. Act of November 26, 1997, P.L. 508, as amended, 10 P.S. §§ 371 — 385.

. Article 8, Section 2(a)(v) of the Pennsylvania Constitution states:
(a) The General Assembly may by law exempt from taxation:
(v) Institutions of purely public charity, but in the case of any real property tax exemptions only that portion of real property of such institution which is actually and regularly used for the purposes of the institution. Pa. Const, art. VIII, § 2(a)(v).

. Act of May 22, 1933, P.L. 853, as amended, 72 P.S. §§ 5020-1 — 5020-602.