Request By:
Mr. James S. Secrest
Allen County Attorney
210 West Main Street
Scottsville, Kentucky 42164
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Allen County War Memorial Hospital is a county hospital established and maintained by Allen County under the provisions of KRS 216.010 et seq. At present there are only three physicians in Allen County. If the hospital is to continue to operate, additional physicians must be brought into the county.
Your question: "Can Allen County or the Allen County War Memorial Hospital contribute to a fund that would be used to recruit a physician or physicians to locate in Allen County?"
The fund you are talking about creating would be used to equip a medical office and to guarantee a minimum income to such physician or physicians who would be recruited to locate here. It would be hoped that, once the physician is established, he would repay all such advances made for his benefit.
At the outset we recognize the utter importance of attracting physicians to our rural areas.
The first question is whether or not there is any statutory basis for a fiscal court's or county hospital's subsidizing a physician's practice in order to achieve this public goal.
The Supreme Court of Kentucky, in Fiscal Court, Etc. v. City of Louisville, Ky., 559 S.W.2d 478 (1977), held that powers given to fiscal courts by the General Assembly must be in the form of statutes expressly and specifically vesting such authority in those county legislative bodies. The fiscal court certainly has the authority to provide for the poor and the sick [KRS 67.080(8)]. It has the authority to establish and maintain a county hospital [KRS 216.010 et seq.]. However, we are unable to find any specific statutory authority for the subsidizing of or giving of aid to a physician in connection with his private practice, even though the practical effect of such aid would promote the public health of Allen County. This is precisely the reason that the subsidizing of physicians in rural areas has been left largely to funding by private citizens, corporations, and associations.
Even if there were some specific statutory authority for this, we would still have the hurdles of §§ 3, 171, and 179 of the Constitution to consider. We would have the problem of determining whether such an expenditure would be for a public purpose within the meaning of §§ 3 and 171 of the Kentucky Constitution. See