Metzger, 111932 PAAGO, AGO 75

• Case Date: November 19, 1932
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable Leon D. Metzger AGO 75 Opinion No. 75 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General November 19, 1932          Taxation—Sales tax—Water, gas and, electricity—Distribution of, by Municipalities and Public Service Companies—Act No. 53, Extraordinary Session of 1932.          Act No. 53 of the Extraordinary Session of 1932, providing a State tax upon sales of tangible personal property, does not apply to the distribution of water, gas and electricity by municipalities and public service companies.          Honorable Leon D. Metzger,          Secretary of Revenue,          Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: We have your request to be advised whether the distribution of water, gas, and electricity by municipalities and public service companies is a sale of tangible personal property within the meaning of Act No. 53, approved August 19, 1932, and therefore subject to the tax imposed by that act.          Section 3 of the act provides that:

"A State tax is hereby imposed and assessed upon sales of tangible personal property, at the rate of one per centum upon each dollar of the gross income derived from the sales of such property, * * *"

         Under this section the sales tax is imposed upon "sales of tangible personal property". "We believe that in construing this expresision, we are bound to regard the popular conception of its meaning rather than any technical construction.          This certainly seems necessary in the light of numerous decisions of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.          In Commonwealth v. Light & Power Co., 145 Pa. 105 (1891), Mr. Justice Williams said at page 118:

"* * * Laws are written ordinarily in the language of the people, and not in that of science * * *".

         And in Commonwealth v. Lowry-Rodgers Co., 279 Pa. 361 (1924), Mr. Justice Simpson, in passing upon the question whether roasting coffee is "manufacturing", stated that the process in question must be considered "in the popular, and therefore in the statutory, sense of the word". See also Commonwealth v. Glendora Products Co., 297 Pa. 305 (1929).          In Commonwealth v. Weiland...