Court Opinion

ID: 9699663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:44:28.26958+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:55.260114
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen:
Were the action taken by this Court today the act of a nonjudicial branch of our government, it would *400be termed irresponsible. That it is taken by the majority of this Court does not make it any less so. It has consistently been urged by students of government that local services should be furnished on a “pay-as-you-go” basis. “Future generations should not be mortgaged” to benefit the present. The Home Rule Charter adopts this principle by requiring that revenue measures should be provided which will furnish ineome sufficient to equal projected appropriations. Thus, I agree with the positions taken by the Greater Philadelphia Movement and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in their briefs that no section of the Charter countermands the proposed tax ordinances. The majority also does not find a provision which places a prohibition on interim taxes. However, the majority requires 38 pages to Nationalize such a prohibition into existence. On the contrary, I would find that the “unanticipated emergency” exception and the further reference that payments be made from “current revenues” in the Charter are consistent with the principle of “pay-as-you-go”, and hence permit the tax ordinances.
The expenditures here involved are conceded to be necessary for School Board essentials, policemen’s and firemen’s salaries and expenditures required by the new Constitution. At oral argument, appellees suggested that these items could be paid for by borrowing. This is contrary to good government, good administration and “pay-as-you-go.” It is undisputed that borrowing now can result only in higher taxes in the future.
I must further point out the inconsistency of the majority’s opinion and its final exhortation to ask the legislature for permission to pass interim taxes. The majority has vitiated the taxes on the basis of provisions of the Home Rule Charter. The 1949 legislative enabling act granted “all powers and authority of lo*401cal self-government” to cities taking advantage of the Act. Philadelphia by its Charter took advantage of the Act. The majority now holds that the Home Rule Charter does not permit interim taxation. Thus, it is the Charter that requires amending. Act of 1949, P. L. 665, 53 P.S. §13101.
Innumerable objections and criticisms can be leveled both to the reasoning and the determination of the majority, but all of these are minuscule when compared with the unjustifiable harm inflicted on the Philadelphia school system and the unwarranted restrictions imposed on the Philadelphia city government.
I dissent.