Professional Athletes Criticize Pittsburgh ‘Jock Tax’ on Appeal

National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and National Football League players’ unions urged a Pennsylvania appeals court to uphold a trial court ruling striking down Pittsburgh’s tax on visiting athletes as unconstitutional.

The trial court ruled in September that the “jock tax” violates the state constitution’s uniformity clause because it isn’t uniformly applied to all professional athletes who compete in the city’s sports venues. The city appealed to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in March, arguing the ruling below “impermissibly second-guessed the City of Pittsburgh’s broadly discretionary taxing authority.”

In a response filed Monday, the players argued the trial court got ...