Request By:
Mr. Jacob P. Cline III
Attorney at Law
Mountain Coals, Inc.
118 North 18th Street
P.O. Box 1562
Middlesboro, Kentucky 40965
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter of April 22, 1982, you asked whether KRS 143.100 prohibits the City of Middlesboro from assessing occupational license fees against employees of companies engaged in the severance, processing, sale, use, transportation and handling of coal.
KRS 143.100 provides that:
"No city, county, taxing district or other unit of government, except the Commonwealth of Kentucky, shall levy any occupational, license, excise, severance or other tax, assessment or impost of any kind whatsoever upon the severance, processing, sale, use, transportation, or other handling of coal within the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
Section 181 of the Kentucky Constitution authorizes the General Assembly to enact legislation granting cities the power to impose occupational license fees. Pursuant to KRS 92.281 cities of all classes may levy and collect such license fees.
The ordinance enacted by the City of Middlesboro imposes an annual license fee "upon all persons, associations, corporations, or other activity in the City of Middlesboro, Kentucky, for the privilege of engaging in such occupations, trade, profession, or other activity . . ."
The prohibition set forth in KRS 143.100 does not prevent a city from imposing a license fee for the privilege of engaging in an occupation carried on in that city. Rather, the statute prohibits a city from singling out and imposing a direct tax upon the "severance, processing, sale, use, transportation, or other handling of coal within the Commonwealth of Kentucky." The Middlesboro city ordinance does not impose such a direct tax on any phase of coal handling, but rather imposes a license fee on persons some of whom may be engaged in an occupation relating to coal. Such a license fee is not considered to be of the type which KRS 143.100 was intended to prohibit.