Request By:
Mr. Vic Hellard, Jr.
Director
Legislative Research Commission
Capitol
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of January 13, in which you raise the question as to whether or not the legislature can establish a six-year term for the office of property valuation administrator. With respect to this question you relate the following:
"In view of the provisions of Section 104 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to tax assessors (and their successors, the property valuation administrators) and in view of Sections 107 and 99 of the Constitution of Kentucky limiting terms of office to four years, would it be permissible for the General Assembly to establish a six year term of office for property valuation administrators? "
Our response to your question would be in the negative. The office of assessor named in Section 99 of the Constitution was abolished by the General Assembly in 1918 pursuant to the authority expressed in Section 104 of the Constitution. In abolishing the office of assessor the legislature created the statutory office of county tax commissioner referred to in KRS 132.370, which was subsequently renamed property valuation administrator.
The office of county tax commissioner, now the office of property valuation administrator, was declared to be a state rather than a county office in the case of Jefferson County Fiscal Court v. Trager, 302 Ky. 361, 194 S.W.2d 851 (1946). Section 93 of the Constitution provides in part as follows:
"Inferior state offices, not specifically provided for in this constitution, may be appointed or elected in such manner as may be prescribed by law, for a term not exceeding four years, and until their successors are appointed or elected and qualified." (Emphasis added.)
A case in point is that of Sinking Fund Commissioner v. George, 104 Ky. 260, 20 KLR, 938 (1898) in which the Court had before it an act creating the board of penitentiary commissioners for the purpose of regulating the penal institutions of the Commonwealth. This act fixed six-year staggering terms for members of the board, which the Court struck down as being unconstitutional and in violation of Section 93 of the Constitution limiting inferior state offices not named in the Constitution, to four-year terms. See also Howard v. Saylor, 305 Ky. 504, 204 S.W.2d 815 (1947) and Love v. Duncan, Ky., 256 S.W.2d 498 (1953).
Under the circumstances we are of the opinion that the state legislature cannot establish a six-year term for the office of property valuation administrator in view of the fact that this office is a minor state office, the term of which is limited to four years pursuant to Section 93 of the Constitution.