Request By:
Phillip Bruce Leslie, Esq.
Corporate Counsel
City of Greenup
1005 Walnut Street
Greenup, Kentucky 41144
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising a question concerning the expenditure of municipal aid funds. The city recently received its allocation of municipal aid funds and would like to use a portion of the money to pave a public parking lot in front of the city building. The property is owned by the city and is used by the general public for parking while conducting business in the city building. The city police and fire departments are also located in the city building.
Your specific question is whether the city may expend a portion of its municipal aid funds to pave the public parking lot.
The first applicable provision relative to your inquiry is § 230 of the Kentucky Constitution which provides in part as follows:
". . . No money derived from excise or license taxation relating to gasoline and other motor fuels, and no moneys derived from fees, excise or license taxation relating to registration, operation, or use of vehicles on public highways shall be expended for other than the cost of administration, statutory refunds and adjustments, payment of highway obligations, costs for construction, reconstruction, rights of way, maintenance and repair of public highways and bridges, and expense of enforcing state traffic and motor vehicle laws."
In connection with road expenditures and § 230 of the Kentucky Constitution, the court in
Keck v. Manning, 313 Ky. 433, 231 S.W.2d 604, 606 (1950), said in part as follows:
"The purpose of the 1944 amendment, often referred to as the 'anti diversion amendment,' was not to curtail the road program but to make secure the funds with which to continue it. Through excise taxes on gasoline and license taxes on motor vehicles tremendous sums are brought into the state treasury. In some states part of this money has been used for education, welfare or social security programs and other governmental expenses. The amendment was supported by the motor vehicle interests to prevent this fund, raised by special taxes levied against them, from being put to uses having no connection with the construction, maintenance and administration of the highway system. . ."
KRS 177.369(1) states in part that on and after July 1, 1980 and each fiscal year thereafter, the Department of Finance shall pay to each incorporated city its pro rata share of any funds appropriated and any unexpended balance of such funds. KRS 177.369(2) requires that the expenditure of any money received by a city pursuant to KRS 177.369(1) be made solely for the purpose of construction, reconstruction and maintenance of streets as set forth in KRS 177.365. KRS 177.369(3) provides that cities receiving funds pursuant to KRS 177.369(1) shall retain all records relative to the expenditure of such funds and said records shall be subject to audit by the Department of Finance in order to determine the proper expenditure of funds for the purposes required by statute.
KRS 177.366 provides in part that on and after July 1, 1980, the Department of Finance shall allocate to each incorporated city its pro rata share of the funds set apart for construction, reconstruction and maintenance of streets on the basis of the ratio which the population in said cities bears to the total population in cities of the state.
KRS 177.365(1) provides in part that 6.7% of all amounts received from the imposition of the taxes provided for in KRS 138.220, 138.565, 138.660(1) and (2) and 234.320 shall be set aside by the Department of Finance for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of streets and for no other purpose. "Construction," "reconstruction, " and "maintenance" mean the supervising, inspecting, actual building, and all expenses incidental to the construction, reconstruction or maintenance of a street, including planning, locating, surveying, and mapping or preparing roadway plans, acquisition of rights-of-way, relocation of utilities, lighting and the elimination of other hazards such as roadway grade crossings, and all other items defined in the Bureau of Highways design, operations and construction manuals. "Streets" mean all public ways which have been designated by the incorporated city as being city streets and said streets lying within the boundaries of an incorporated city. KRS 177.365(2) and (4).
The statute does not include the terms "parking lot" or "public parking lot" within the definition of streets nor does it specifically define those terms. In the case of
Sorg v. Iowa Department of Revenue, Iowa, 269 N.W.2d 129, 132 (1978) the court said in part:
"Generally, statutory words are presumed to be used in their ordinary and usual sense and with the meaning commonly attributable to them.
Amos v. Prom, Inc., 117 F.Supp. 615, 624 (N.D. Iowa), appeal dismissed, 214 F.2d 350 (8th Cir. 1954);
State v. McGuire, 200 N.W.2d 832, 833 (Iowa 1972); 2A Sutherland Statutory Construction § 46.01 (rev. 3d Ed. . 1973). We think in its broad application the ordinary and usual public concept of 'parking lot' is simply an outdoor lot for the parking of vehicles. See Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1642 (1966); see also
Bedford v. Johnson, 102 Colo. 203, 209, 78 P.2d 373, 377 (1938);
State v. Kressler, 50 N.J. Super. 362, 366, 142 A.2d 257, 159-60 (1958)."
CONCLUSION
The funds received by the city under the municipal aid program are subject to the general mandate of § 230 of the Kentucky Constitution concerning road expenditures. KRS 177.369(2) further limits permissible expenditures of such funds to only the "purpose of construction, reconstruction and maintenance of urban roads and streets set forth in KRS 177.365." A parking lot is not within the definition of "streets" and thus the city cannot expend its municipal aid funds to pave a public parking lot.