Court Opinion

ID: 9542040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:30:50.554471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:00.240069
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the majority, but I write separately to note that my colleagues have adopted the flexible approach which I espoused in Golden Triangle Broadcasting, Inc. v. City of Pittsburgh, 483 Pa. 525, 397 A.2d 1147 (1979) (Larsen, J., dissenting).
The Golden Triangle case concerned the Local Tax Enabling Act, Act of December 31, 1965, P.L. 1257, § 2, 53 P.S. § 6902 (1972), and the application of the term “manufacturing” to the activities of those in the radio and television broadcasting industry. I would have held that such activity constituted manufacturing, and in support thereof, I stated:
[I]t is important to remember that the limitation placed by the legislature on the City’s authority to tax is intended to encourage the growth of manufacturing in this Commonwealth. The courts, in their development of standards for determining whether or not a particular enterprise is engaged in manufacturing, should be concerned with achieving that legislative objective. To that end, the standards must be flexible and the courts must be willing to adapt the standards to comport with rapid technological and scientific progress. As research and development in countless areas produces techniques and processes that may have been hitherto unheard of, we must not rigidly bind ourselves to outmoded concepts____ As the “Star Trek” era is ushered into our lives, this Court must be prepared to keep its perspectives progressive and its definitions flexible, or else this Commonwealth will fail to acquire modern, technological manufacturing operations.
Id., 483 Pa. at 537-38, 397 A.2d at 1153.
Accordingly, I would also reverse and remand this case to the Board of Finance and Review.