Request By:
Mr. Martin W. Johnson
Marshall County Attorney
Courthouse, P.O. Box 172
Benton, Kentucky 42025
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The question you have presented to us for an opinion concerns a Fire Protection District in Marshall County.
Your letter reads:
"We have received an inquiry from a fire protection district trustee in Marshall County regarding the propriety of the district assessing or charging a fee for fire calls made by the district's volunteer fireman when the district is a fire district established under the provision of KRS 75.010.
"The question as presented to this office was:
"Can a tax supported fire district legally charge a fee for fire calls made to tax payers property within the fire protection district or to other districts to which the members of the volunteer fireman of the tax support district may be called to or respond for fire fighting service?
"The district that has made this inquiry has proposed a fee or service charge to be levied in addition to the tax being paid by residents of the district and the propriety of such a policy has been questioned."
We assume from your letter that a volunteer fire department district was established pursuant to KRS 75.010. See KRS 75.031, relating to the Board of Trustees as the governing body for the district.
Under KRS 75.040(1), the trustees are authorized to "establish and operate a fire department in such district and to levy a tax upon the property in said district, . . . . not exceeding ten cents (10 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of valuation as assessed for county taxes, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of such establishment, maintenance and operation of said fire department . . ."
The levy of the tax, under the express language of KRS 75.040, is permissive, not mandatory. The statute simply says the Trustees are authorized to levy a tax.
However, in your facts you are saying in effect that the district is supported by the authorized tax.
While KRS 75.040 was not intended to constitute an exclusive mode of funding a volunteer fire protection district, the authority for the district to impose a fire call service charge or fee would be legal only if expressly authorized by statute.
A review of KRS Chapter 75 reveals no statutory authority for the Trustees of such a volunteer fire department district to impose a fee or charge for responding to fire calls within the district or within any other districts under contract. The powers of this special district are strictly a matter of statute. See