A group of commissioners on Philadelphia's Board of Revision of Taxes, including former state Supreme Court Justice Russell M. Nigro, has lost in its bid to recoup nearly $300,000 in compensation lost as a result of a city ordinance that cut commissioners' pay but was ultimately declared unconstitutional.

Nigro and Philadelphia attorneys Alan K. Silberstein and Robert N.C. Nix III were all in the midst of six-year terms on the board—set to end in 2013—when City Council's 2010 Salary Reduction Ordinance took effect, at which point their salaries were reduced, according to Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Colins' April 10 opinion. At the beginning of their new terms in 2013, their salaries were set at that reduced level and were not increased again until March 27, 2014, when City Council enacted a Salary Restoration Ordinance.

In the meantime, the Commonwealth Court ruled in Meade v. City of Philadelphia that the 2010 ordinance was unconstitutional, after which the city agreed to pay Nigro, Nix and Silberstein—referred to in Colins' opinion as “the 2013 commissioners”—backpay only for the period from April 22, 2010, when the reduction ordinance was enacted, to the end of their terms in 2013.