Request By:
Ms. Frankie Scott Hager
City Attorney
City of Owensboro
City Hall
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of April 23 in which you relate that the city has recently enacted a $10 automobile license fee in the form of a windshield sticker. You present the following questions with respect to the applicability of this license fee to disabled veterans:
"1) Does KRS 186.041(4) apply to any and all vehicles owned by a disabled veteran?
"2) If not, to how many does it apply?"
With respect to the above questions you further quote subsection (4) of KRS 186.041 which reads as follows:
"No county, city, town or any other political subdivision of this state shall require any license or fee from any disabled veteran for the privilege of operating a motor vehicle licensed by the department under the provisions of this section upon the streets or alleys of any political subdivision, any other provisions of law to the contrary notwithstanding."
Our response to your initial question would be in the negative. In OAG 76-640 the question was raised as to whether a qualified disabled veteran under the terms of KRS 186.041 (1) could purchase a second certificate of registration and a second set of "handicapped veteran" license plates and our response was in the negative for the reasons set out therein. You will note that under the United States Code, 38 USC 1903, cited in the opinion, provision is made that no eligible person shall be entitled to receive more than one automobile or other conveyance.
Subsection (1) of KRS 186.041 limits the Department of Transportation to issuing two (2) license plates "to each disabled veteran who has been or shall be issued a motor vehicle" under the Federal Act cited therein. Subsection (3) specifically provides that license plates provided under this statute shall be issued only as long as the veteran is the owner of a motor vehicle provided by the Veteran's Administration.
Clear and unambiguous language in statutes will be hend to mean what they plainly state. Hawley Coal Co. v. Bruce, 252 Ky. 455, 67 S.W.2d 703 (1933). Thus, the whole tenor of KRS 186.041 and the applicable Federal Act reflect a clear legislative intent that qualifying disabled veterans are entitled to only one (1) set of special license plates for one (1) motor vehicle. Therefore, the prohibition on cities under KRS 186.041 (4) from imposing any automobile license fee is restricted to one (1) vehicle owned by a qualifying veteran. As a consequence, any additional motor vehicle owned by the disabled veteran would require the veteran to pay the regular motor vehicle license fee levied by the city.
For your information, we are also enclosing a copy of OAG 71-94 pointing out that under the Federal Act the government does not furnish the veteran a motor vehicle but merely a sum of money as financial assistance in the purchase of such a vehicle.