Request By:
Honorable Bill Klapheke
Barren County Attorney
Courthouse - Second Level
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of April 21 in which you request an opinion concerning the following:
"My Fiscal Court has directed me to request an opinion concerning the legality of a question pursuant to KRS 108.100 on the May 23 1978 ballot with reference to the establishment of an emergency ambulance service taxing district. It was the interpretation of both County Juge/Executive Dale Burchett and myself that the wording 'next regular election' meant the next election other than a special election, but in reading the definition of regular election in KRS Chapter 446, it is now my opinion that this question can only be on the ballot in November, 1978."
KRS 108.100(1), concerning the referendum to determine whether or not an emergency ambulance service district shall be created, contains the following provision:
". . . A certified copy of the resolution of the fiscal court shall be filed with the county court clerk at least sixty (60) days prior to the next regular election and thereupon the clerk shall cause the question to be placed on the ballot. " (Emphasis added).
The term "regular election" can only refer to the November election in view of § 148 of the Constitution. This section permits only one election each year within the state which must be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. There are four types of elections that are constitutionally declared to be exceptions under this section as pointed out in the case of
Ginsburg v. Giles, 254 Ky. 720, 72 S.W.2d 438 (1934). The four exceptions are local option elections pursuant to § 61 of the Constitution, the filling of vacancies in the General Assembly under § 152, school elections under § 155 of the Constitution, and county bond indebtedness questions under § 157(a).
Under the circumstances, the question of organizing the ambulance service district can only be presented to the voters at a regular November election held each year in Kentucky.