Reduction In Tax Collector Salary Challenge In Pennsylvania

In Penn-Delco School District v. Schukraft, 95 Pa. Commw. 619, 506 A.2d 956 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1986), candidates commenced litigation challenging, among other things, the reduction in tax collector salary. The school district argued that the candidates filed their complaints too late because when they did so, they had already won their respective primary elections. This Court disagreed as follows: In that case, an incumbent tax collector had run for, and won, re-election to his office before he brought his action to restore his salary to its previous level. Since he had been victorious in the general election and had been sworn into office, the Supreme Court held that he lacked standing to challenge the amount of his office's salary. To hold otherwise, wrote the Court, would sanction a fraud upon the general electorate. . .. We are satisfied that the facts presented here are significantly distinguished from those present in Myers. Here, the Appellees were only candidates for the offices whose salaries and duties they challenged whereas in Myers the challenger had already won election and was sworn into office. Rather, we are convinced that the facts here are more closely akin to those present in Yost... . In Yost, the challengers were incumbent tax collectors who intended to run for, but had not yet won, re-election. . .Id. at 958-959.