Request By:
Mr. Robert Moore, Clerk
Trimble County Court
Bedford, Kentucky 40006
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General, it is stated that the Trimble County fiscal court met to set tax rates for the county on September 28, 1978. The court had a resolution from the Trimble County Health District requesting the health district rate to be set at 4 per $100 of the assessed valuation of property. After discussion by the county, it set the rate at 3.1 per $100 which was confirmed at a later date.
The question is whether tax bills should be prepared with the 3.1 rate, the 4 rate, or should they be held in abeyance until the rate difference is resolved.
The health district was apparently set up under the provisions of KRS 212.720. That statute provides that the voters of the district shall determine what the maximum tax rate is to be.
Under KRS 212.755, if the tax levying authorities of the district, in this case the fiscal court, does not appropriate an amount sufficient to meet the public health needs of the county, then the county board of health, as the governing body of the taxing district, shall, with the approval of the Department for Human Resources, request the fiscal court to impose by resolution a special ad valorem public health tax that it deems sufficient but not in excess of 4 per $100 of the full value assessed valuation of property in the district. The fiscal court may include in the next county ad valorem tax levy said special public health tax imposed.
In this case since the fiscal court refused to set the rate of 4 as requested by the board, it would be up to the health board to take any legal action to compel the fiscal court to set the requested rate. If they do not do so, then you have no recourse but to prepare tax bills at the rate set by the fiscal court.