Request By:
Mr. Jesse W. Link
Simpson County Judge/Executive
Courthouse
Franklin, Kentucky 42134
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Simpson County citizens voted in the last general election of November, 1978, to create a library district with a five (5) cents tax on each $100 worth of property assessed for local taxation in the district. We assume you refer to a library district created by a vote of the people under KRS 173.470.
There is presently some sentiment favoring reducing the tax from five cents (5 ) to two cents (2 ). You say that the fiscal court set the 5 rate prior to the election in 1978 on the 5 tax. You are thinking that the identical method must be employed to reduce the tax. You mention KRS 173.790(3)(c), stating that no decrease can be effected until after three years' from the levying of the tax. However, that statute has no application to your situation since it relates only to library districts created by the petition method. You want to know how the reduction in the tax can be accomplished.
Under KRS 173.470 the petition of 100 or more qualified voters in the district asking that the question of creating a library district be placed upon the ballot should contain the exact tax rate desired. Then the fiscal court adopts a resolution submitting to the voters the question of creating such district and specifying the precise tax rate to be used. While there is no express statement in KRS 173.470 that the precise tax rate desired be indicated in the petition, it can be reasonably implied from reading the entire statute. An act must be considered as a whole, giving effect to every part thereof. Earhart v. Middendorf, 234 Ky. 78, 27 S.W.2d 657 (1930). Also note that KRS 173.720 [relating to creating a library district by the petition method] expressly provides that the petition must contain the precise proposed tax rate. The reading of the two statutes together [KRS 173.470 and 173.720] buttresses our view. See Cawood v. Coleman, 294 Ky. 858, 172 S.W.2d 548 (1943), holding that statutes should be harmonized.
The point is that under both methods of creating a library district [petition and ballot] , the legislative intent was for the precise tax rate to be established by the petitioners under the petition method and by the voters under the ballot method. The fiscal court was not required or permitted to set such tax rate. The constitutionality of the petition method was most recently upheld by the Supreme Court of Kentucky in Wayne Public Library Board of Trustees v. Wayne County Fiscal Court, Ky., 572 S.W.2d 858 (1978) 859.
The change, either an increase or decrease, in the ad valorem tax rate of this district is controlled by KRS 173.610, which employs the precise method used in the district's creation. Either the library board or any one hundred (100) qualified voters residing in the district may file a resolution or petition, as the case may be, with the clerk of the county in the district at least 45 days prior to the general (November) election; and the clerk shall thereupon cause the question to be placed upon the ballot in substantially the following form as applied to your situation:
"Are you in favor of decreasing from 5 cents to 2 on each $100 of assessed valuation of all property in the (name of library district) public library district, the maximum tax which the district can impose for the maintenance and operation of the said library district." Here again the resolution of the library board, or the petition of qualified voters, as the case may be, should contain the specific tax rate to which the proposed decrease is addressed. Then it goes on the ballot with those specific rates named (from 5 to 2 ).
You ask if a petition for decrease can be filed where less than three years have elapsed since the original levying of the tax.
The restrictive provisions of KRS 173.790(3)(c) 1 apply only to library districts created by the petition, not ballot, method. You may note that KRS 173.610 [ballot method] contains no such restrictions. However, a logical distinction exists. The restriction applies to petition created districts, but does not apply to voted districts. 2
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 The provisions of KRS 173.610(3) are meaningless, since KRS 173.610(1) relates only to ballot created districts and 173.790 relates only to petition created districts.
2 However, a decrease cannot be voted such that existing contractual obligations would be impaired. See § 19, Ky. Const., and Art. 1, § 10, U.S. Const.