Request By:
Elizabeth Mullins, Mayor
Town of Brodhead
Brodhead, Kentucky 40409
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter the question is whether the Town of Brodhead has the authority to tax a coal tipple located within the city limits.
Probably not. In the recent case of Department of Revenue v. Allied Drum Service, Inc., Ky., 561 S.W.2d 323 (1978) the Supreme Court of Kentucky overruled the case of Colley v. Eastern Coal Corporation, Ky., 470 S.W.2d 338 (1971) and impliedly held the production and processing of coal is a manufacturing process and that the machinery used in washing, sizing, crushing and processing coal is manufacturing machinery. In so holding, the machinery of a coal tipple would be classified as manufacturing machinery subject only to the state tax rate. It could no longer be taxable locally.