Kittanning Borough v. Armstrong Water Co.

Citations

• 35 Pa. Super. 174
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 6

Syllabus

<p>Boroughs — Water companies — License tax — Reasonableness of tax— Burden,of proof — Police power.</p> <p>A borough may under its police power impose a mileage license tax on the pipes and mains of a water company.</p> <p>Where a borough has imposed a license tax on the pipes and mains of a water company, the borough is not required to show the reasonableness of the tax for the cost of proper inspection and surveillance in the presentation of its case in chief. The burden is on the person who alleges the invalidity of the tax upon the ground of unreasonableness to aver and prove the facts that make it so.</p> <p>As it is ordinarily impossible to determine in advance the exact cost of supervision, the municipality is at liberty to make the charge large enough to pover any reasonably anticipated expense, and the payment of the fee cannot be avoided because it may subsequently appear that it was somewhat in excess of the actual expense of the supervision.</p> <p>Where the evidence shows that a water company has dug up the alleys and paved streets of a borough in repairing lines, changing connections and in searching for leaks, and that the borough policemen have been engaged in watching for leaks, for unfilled ditches, and for obstructions of the public highway, and in putting danger signals when necessary, and in reporting to the water company and the municipal authorities, a license tax of $30.00 per mile on six miles of water pipe, is not so clearly unreasonable as to require the court to declare the tax invalid.</p>