Braddock Borough v. Allegheny County Telephone Co.

Citations

• 25 Pa. Super. 544
• 1904 Pa. Super. LEXIS 108

Syllabus

<p>Telephone companies — License tax■ — Taxation—Borough ordinance — Police power. ■</p> <p>The nature of the charge imposed by a municipal ordinance on telegraph and telephone poles and wires does not depend on the descriptive term that may be applied to it. The charge is not imposed in the exercise of the taxing power, for general revenue purposes, but in the exercise of the police power, to meet the expense arising from the duty of municipal supervision. Hence it is wholly immaterial whether the amount fixed for this purpose .is designated as a license tax, a license fee, or a police charge. The only question that can be raised respecting it is whether it is reasonable,' under the circumstances.</p> <p>A borough ordinance granting to a telephone company the right to erect its lines, and providing for a limited free service for borough purposes and exempting the telephone company in consideration of the free service, from taxation and special assessments in the nature of taxation, do not relieve the company from a license tax on poles and wires fixed by a prior ordinance. The borough has no power to exempt the company from charges arising from the exercise of the police power.</p>