Request By:
Ms. Barbara M. Harper
Reynolds, Pitt and Harper
P.O. Box 1264
901 First Bank & Trust Building
Ashland, Kentucky 41101
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Eastern Greenup County Emergency Ambulance Service District was created in November 1980 as a result of 1980 legislation, consisting of four cities. We assume you refer to KRS 108.100, as amended in 1980.
KRS 108.100(4) reads:
"(4) All special ad valorem taxes authorized by KRS 108.080 to 108.180 shall be collected in the same manner as are other county and city ad valorem taxes in each county and city affected and shall be turned over to the board of directors as the governing body of the district. The special ad valorem tax shall be in addition to all other ad valorem taxes. The sheriff shall be entitled to a fee of one percent (1%) of the amount of the tax collected by him."
The section was amended by two 1980 acts which were in conflict, but the conflict is not important here.
Your question:
"As amended by the 1980 Acts, does KRS 108.100(4) give the county statutory authority to collect the special ad valorem tax for emergency ambulance service districts?"
A critical fact here is that the ambulance service district is a special taxing district under § 157 of the Kentucky Constitution. KRS 108.100(3) reads:
"(3) If a majority of those voting in each city or county on the question favor the establishment of an emergency ambulance service district it shall be so established and shall constitute and be a taxing district within the meaning of Section 157 of the Constitution of Kentucky. The cost of the election shall be paid by the fiscal court or city legislative body (as appropriate)."
Thus the tax rate and debt limitations expressed in § 157, Constitution, relate to the special taxing district, and not to the county in which it is located. Here KRS 108.100 expressly provides that the ambulance service district has the power to levy an ad valorem tax to fund its statutory operations; and it expressly provides that such district is a taxing district within the meaning of § 157, Constitution. Thus it is a new and separate territory within which a special assessment may be levied by the district on an ad valorem basis on taxable property within the district for its statutory purpose. See Kelly v. Dailey, Ky., 366 S.W.2d 181 (1963); City of Covington v. District of Highlands, 113 Ky. 612, 68 S.W. 669 (1902); and Lee v. Board of Education of Bell County, 261 Ky. 379, 87 S.W.2d 961 (1935).
It is our opinion, under the above explicit provisions of KRS 108.100 and our analysis of it, that the county has no authority to collect this district tax. The sheriff collects this district tax. The district is a separate taxing district and has a basic autonomy. See the board's powers in KRS 108.140. It is not a part of the county's tax structure. While the statute, KRS 108.100(4), provides in effect that the district tax shall be collected in the same manner and time frame "as are other county and city ad valorem taxes", the term "other county and city ad valorem taxes" is a misnomer, since from the whole statute the district tax is not constitutionally a "county or city tax." The language merely refers to the manner and time of collecting taxes on the part of the sheriff, who collects county and some extent possible. See KRS 92.640. The statute explicitly requires the tax collector, the sheriff, to turn over collected district taxes to the "board of directors as the governing body of the district." (Emphasis added).
The sheriff must turn the district taxes collected over to the Board of Directors of the Emergency Ambulance Service District for appropriate statutory purposes. Our interpretation is based upon observing the basic scheme, which is to provide the levying of the district tax by the district and the collection thereof by the sheriff and the turning over the taxes collected to the District Board. Department of Revenue v. Miller, 303 Ky. 822, 199 S.W.2d 622 (1947). The simple purpose of KRS 108.100(4) is to integrate the collection of the district tax with the sheriff's collection scheme relating to county and some city (5th and 6th class) taxes.