Request By:
Mr. J. Scott Preston
Johnson County Attorney
Courthouse Annex
Paintsville, Kentucky 41240
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of June 14, in which you relate that the Industrial Revenue Bond Oversight Committee has upon request of the City of Paintsville approved an industrial project for a retail sales establishment pursuant to KRS 103.2101. You have also stated by phone that upon contacting the Oversight Committee it has indicated no objection to switching this industrial project from the city to the county so that in effect the county will issue the industrial revenue bonds for the project. The question raised is whether the Oversight Committee must reapprove the project prior to the county taking it over.
Our response to the question would be in the negative. KRS 103.2101(4) provides that the committee must review for approval or denial certain projects including the one referred to here, to determine the following:
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"(a) The economic need for the project in the area.
"(b) Whether the project places an unjustified competitive disadvantage on existing business in the area.
"(c) If normal commercial financing is unavailable for this porject or if available at what rates it must be secured and under what terms and conditions.
"(d) If the project is in accord with the intent of KRS 102.300 to 103.285, this section and KRS 103.2451.
"(e) The project's economic soundness.
Since the project in question has been reviewed and presumably found to meet the statutory conditions quoted above the mere transfer of the project from the city to the county would not appear to alter or affect the nature of the project or the conditions required to be met by the committee before the initial approval. We therefore conclude that the reapproval of the project before transferring it to the county is not required particularly in view of the fact that the trade area embraced by the project encompasses the entire county including, of course, the city as well as surrounding counties according to your letter.