Court Opinion

ID: 9698444
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:50:50.132197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:41.054239
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Today the majority holds that the Legislature did not intend to apply Act 100, Act of May 22, 1933, P.L. 853, art. IV, § 402, as amended, 72 P.S. § 5020~402(a) (Supp.1979-80) to Allegheny County because that county employs triennial assessments. I must dissent. The Legislature could not have been more explicit in its statutory mandate that second class counties like Allegheny are subject to the Act.
Since 1933, counties of the second class have been authorized by the Legislature to use triennial assessments. 72 P.S. § 5020-401(b). When the Legislature enacted Act 100 *96in 1976 it provided that Act 100 applies to all counties “[ejxcept . . . counties of the first class . . . . ” Because the Legislature has directed the courts of this Commonwealth to follow the “words of a statute [when they] are clear and free from all ambiguity . . . ,” 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1921(b), we are compelled to apply Act 100 to Allegheny County.
The majority sets forth three unpersuasive reasons for disregarding the express language of the statute. First it states that application of Act 100 to a county using triennial assessments “would produce a grossly unfair situation” in the present inflationary economy. This conclusion is premised upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the operation of triennial assessments. If we assume, as does the majority, that property values are continually increasing, then triennial assessments (with or without Act 100) could result in higher tax burdens for similarly situated property owners who are assessed in different years. Such a result would, of course, violate the constitutional requirement of uniform taxation. See Pa.Const. art. 8, § 1. But the Legislature, well aware of this difficulty, in 1975 amended the General County Assessment Law, 72 P.S. § 5020-402(a) (Supp.1979-80) to authorize assessors to adjust assessments to reflect economic changes. See also 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1922(3). Thus, equity and tax uniformity can be preserved. So long as triennial assessments incorporate appropriate economic adjustments, the application of Act 100 will in no way upset the equitable and uniform tax burden upon county taxpayers.
The majority next suggests that Act 100, by its own terms, applies only to “county-wide” assessments. Triennial assessments are “district-wide,” suggests the majority, and therefore beyond the ambit of Act 100. I cannot agree. A county using triennial assessments assesses all taxable property in the county. Though the period of assessment is three years, rather than one, there is no dispute that the assessment is county-wide.
*97The majority’s third objection is that Act 100 is inconsistent with Second Class County Law dealing with triennial assessments, and therefore superseded by it. However, the relevant Second Class County Law and the majority opinion disclose no intrinsic inconsistency. See generally 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1932(b).
Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the Commonwealth Court and reinstate the order of the trial court holding that Act 100 applies.