Request By:
William D. Probus
City Attorney
201 Elks Building
Cynthiana, Kentucky 41031
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Suzanne Guss, Assistant Attorney General
Your letter of March 23, 1981, in which you ask whether the City of Cynthiana may impose a restaurant wine license fee has been assigned to the undersigned for reply.
In your letter you state that two Cynthiana restaurants have been issued restaurant wine licenses. I am assuming those were state licenses issued pursuant to KRS 243.032, KRS 243.380, and KRS 243.390. Cities, such as Cynthiana, may not issue licenses except as provided in KRS 243.070. This statute states that "only such licenses may be issued [by a city] as correspond, in their provisions and the business authorized, to the licenses provided for in subsections (1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (8), (16), (17), (18), and (19) of KRS 243.030 and subsections (1), (2), (3), and (6) of KRS 243.040." These subsections do not permit the imposition of a city restaurant wine license; therefore, any fee imposed by Cynthiana upon the holders of state restaurant wine licenses would be impermissible under the statute. A municipality does not have the power to impose a license tax or fee except as such power is given by express statute or necessary implication. Commonwealth v. Day, Ky., 152 S.W.2d 597 (1941).
If I may be of further assistance in this or any other matter, please feel free to call on me.