Abington School District v. Yost

In Abington School District v. Yost, 40 Pa. Commw. 312, 397 A.2d 453 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1979), the school district in its resolution sought to force its elected tax collectors to relinquish their obligation to collect school taxes and was found to have clearly exceeded its authority. The Court upheld the system the Legislature set forth in the Tax Law, as the preferred scheme of tax collection through elected tax collectors, stating that the taxing authorities may not use their ability to set compensation for tax collectors as a means to reform that system: It was, of course, the Legislature's intention that the amounts of compensation of tax collectors fixed by the local taxing districts pursuant to Section 36.1 now 72 P.S. 5511.36a should be reasonable. There is not the slightest indication that the Legislature intended that local taxing authorities should have the power to reduce compensation as a means of reforming to their satisfaction the system of local tax collections, already comprehensively provided for in the statutes. There may be something to be said for the alternate system of collection adopted by the school board on the ground of economy and possibly efficiency; there may also be something to be said for the traditional separation at the local level of the functions of levying and collecting taxes. The choice of system, however, is that of the Legislature, not School Boards. Id., 397 A.2d at 456-457.