For purposes of Pennsylvania school district real estate taxes, school boards’ reductions of elected tax collector salaries by as much as 79% were so low as to deprive the tax collectors of the ability to perform the duties of their elected positions, which rendered the resolutions void, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held. The districts opted to establish compensation rates based on the amount of cost to the districts to collect real estate taxes utilizing modern, cost-efficient technology. However, by reducing compensation levels to such a degree that the elected tax collectors were unable to fulfill their responsibilities, the school districts sought to transform the local tax collection system in a manner that exceeded their statutory authority. The type of change the school districts were attempting had to come from the Legislature.
Telly v. Pennridge School District Board of School Directors, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, No. 68 MAP 2011, August 20, 2012.
