Hemenway & Barnes Successfully Challenges the Constitutionality of Pittsburgh’s “Jock Tax”
Judge Christine Ward, Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County has struck down Pittsburgh’s Sports Facility Usage Fee as an unconstitutional tax. Hemenway & Barnes represented three individual plaintiffs who had been subjected to the Fee as well as the Major League Baseball Players Association, National Hockey League Players Association and National Football League Players Association in the lawsuit challenging Pittsburgh’s income tax on professional athletes.
The Associations argued that the Fee violated the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution and Judge Ward agreed.
In the decision, Judge Ward said, “The Facility Fee is a tax in function, and therefore is governed by the Pennsylvania and United States laws concerning tax. The Facility Fee presents a discriminatory burden on out-of-state residents, with no like tax levied upon Pittsburgh residents.”
Hemenway & Barnes has successfully challenged the constitutionality of similar taxes in other jurisdictions around the country, including most recently the City of Cleveland and the State of Tennessee.
Read the full decision: National Hockey League Players Association et al. v. City of Pittsburgh
Hemenway & Barnes attorneys included: Stephen W. Kidder, Ryan P. McManus, Kevin M. Ellis, Jennifer Grace Miller, and Michael E. Porter.
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