GREENSBURG – Clearfield County municipal tax administrator, Keystone Collections Group’s Joseph W. Lazzaro, has been admitted to the bar of the nation’s highest court, joining a select group of attorneys who can argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Almost every attorney dreams of standing before the highest court in the land,” said Lazzaro, vice president and general counsel of Keystone Collections Group, a municipal income and school tax collector in 15 counties, including Clearfield and Clarion.
“Most American law flows from or is interpreted by the Supreme Court. To actually be a part of that process is truly a noteworthy achievement for any attorney,” said Lazzaro, who is also president of the Westmoreland Bar Association, which had 10 members admitted to the Supreme Court bar.
Lazzaro currently specializes in local tax law, serving as general counsel to local tax administrator Keystone Collections Group. He worked to streamline Pennsylvania’s once-arcane and unwieldy local tax collection system through the introduction of Act 32, which required employers to withhold earned income taxes and created county-wide tax collection districts across the state. As counsel to the Pennsylvania Earned Income Tax Officers, Administrators and Collectors Association, Lazzaro helped to reduce the number of local tax collectors from 560 to 20.
Although he initially wanted to be a writer – earning a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State in 1986 – Lazzaro soon gravitated to law and discovered a passion for tax law.
“Every operation of government at every level relies wholly upon the funds they receive from the tax system,” Lazzaro said. “At the same time, the tax system has to maintain its credibility.
“I saw I could contribute enormously to what was a very weak and inefficient tax system operating at the local level: To make the system work better and, at the same time, build up the integrity of the system to give it the credibility and respect it needs to justify funding the operation of local government.”
Lazzaro considers maintaining the integrity of the local tax system to be one of the core tenets of democracy.
“I see it as equal and equitable participation by the citizenry,” Lazzaro said. “Our job is to make sure all taxpayers are treated equally and participate equitably.”
Lazzaro, 50, is married to the former Karen Kratzenberg. The couple has two children, Samuel, 16, and Maria, 10. Lazzaro is a life-long Pennsylvanian, growing up in Delaware County and attending Upper Darby High School. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State’s School of Journalism, and received his JD from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law in 1989.