Request By:
Mr. William F. Ivers, Jr.
Henry County Attorney
P.O. Box 108
New Castle, Kentucky 40050
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
A member of the Henry County Fiscal Court has requested you to seek the opinion of this office in regard to subdivision road districts created under KRS 179.700.
The question is whether the county, from its road fund, would be legally able to assist such a road district in any way, such as hauling materials and providing equipment without cost or at a cost.
A "subdivision road district" is defined by KRS 179.700(2) as a district in a county or counties which has been established for the maintenance of public roads which are not state or county roads within the district. Clearly such roads are not county roads. A county road is a public road which has been accepted by the fiscal court of the county as a part of the county road system. Since 1914, a formal order of the fiscal court is necessary in the formal acceptance of a road segment as a part of the county road system.
Sarver v. County of Allen, Ky., 582 S.W.2d 40 (1979).
A subdivision road district created under KRS 179.705 is funded from an ad valorem tax pursuant to KRS 179.720. Cf. KRS 179.470(3), providing expressly for county maintenance of subdivision roads in counties containing a city of the fourth, fifth, or sixth class.
CONCLUSION
Henry County has no statutory authority to expend any county road money or any other county money on public roads belonging to a subdivision road district, as defined in KRS 179.700(2). It follows that Henry County has no authority to use county labor, equipment, or materials in assisting a subdivision road district in connection with its public roads, whether at cost or for free.
It is axiomatic that county road money can only be spent on "county roads", as defined in KRS 178.010(1)(b). In addition, a tax levied and collected for one purpose can not be devoted to some other purpose. See § 180, Kentucky Constitution, and KRS 68.100.