Request By:
Mr. Russell K. Johnson
Attorney at Law
P.O. Box 731
Dale Avenue
Eddyville, Kentucky 42038
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The applicability of KRS 424.220 (publication of financial statements) to a District Health Department is the question mentioned in your letter. The specific question is:
"Is the Pennyrile District Health Department bound by the publication provisions of KRS 424.220, or is KRS 65.070 controlling as it concerns summary financial statement publication?"
The Cabinet for Human Resources has informed you that the Pennyrile District Health Department was created pursuant to KRS 212.840, 212.850, et seq. That legislation envisions two or more counties joining together to form such a district health department.
You mentioned KRS 65.070, which provides that a special district shall, pursuant to KRS 65.070(1) (c), publish, in lieu of the provisions of KRS 424.220, but in compliance with other applicable provisions of KRS Chapter 424, the names and addresses of the members of its governing body and chief executive officer, and either a summary financial statement which includes the location of supporting documents, or the location of district financial records which may be examined by the public. " (Emphasis added).
However, the special district mentioned in KRS 65.070 must be a district as defined in KRS 65.060. As relates to KRS Chapter 212, KRS 65.060 provides that the term "district" shall apply to any special district created pursuant to KRS 212.720 to 212.760. The statutes KRS 212.720 to 212.760 relate only to public health taxing districts. In simple words, such districts can levy ad valorem taxes for district purposes. See KRS 212.720 and 212.725.
In contrast, a district health department established pursuant to KRS 212.810 to 212.930 has no taxing power, although funds arising out of public health taxing districts' special health tax, provided for in KRS 212.720 to 212.755, may be turned over to such district health department.
CONCLUSION
(1) In view of the above statutory provisions, and since the Pennyrile District Health Department is not a taxing district under the statutes mentioned and under § § 157 and 158 of the Kentucky Constitution, the summary financial statement of KRS 65.070 has no application.
(2) The remaining question is whether the publication requirements of KRS 424.220 apply to the Pennyrile District Health Department. That will depend upon the application categories listed in subsection (1) of that statute. One application provision includes "every public officer of any school district, city, county, or subdivision or district less than a county, whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of public funds." (Emphasis added). In view of the vagueness of the term "subdivision", and in view of the phrase "district less than a county", we conclude that such application language does not embrace the subject health district department. Other application language of KRS 424.220(1) reads: "every officer of any board or commission of a city, county or district whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of funds collected from the public in the form of rates, charges or assessments for services or benefits." (Emphasis added). In reading all of subsection (1) of KRS 424.220 together, under the doctrine of in pari materia, it is our opinion that KRS 424.220 does not apply to a district health department. See Economy Optical Co. v. Kentucky Bd. of Optometric Examiners, Ky., 310 S.W.2d 783 (1958). That statute emphasizes that those units of government which extract rates, charges, assessments or taxes from the public are brought under the statute. Here a district health department receives its funding from state, federal, county, and public health taxing district sources. It imposes no taxes or charges upon the public.