Request By:
Mr. Brent Yonts
Attorney at Law
112 Court Street
Greenville, Kentucky 42345
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Muhlenberg County Water District, which you represent, in extending its service area is obtaining easements from land owners.
Your question is whether the water district is exempt from the filing fee charged by the county court clerk for recording the district's easements. You say this fee could run into the thousands of dollars.
A water district is a public corporation and political subdivision.
City of Cold Spring v. Campbell County Water Dist., Ky., 334 S.W.2d 269 (1960) 273. See KRS 74.070. Every water commission organized under KRS Chapter 74 is a public body created and functioning in the interest and for the benefit of the public, and its property and income and any bonds issued by it and income therefrom shall be exempt from taxation. KRS 74.520.
The clerk's fee for recording such easements is found in KRS 64.010. There is nothing in the statute indicating an exemption for a water district from paying the recording fee. In fact the fee schedule contains express provisions for cities and the county paying recording fees for certain documents relating to those political subdivisions.
The answer to your question is that a water district is not exempt from paying the recording fees pertaining to deeds of easement made to water districts.