Request By:
Mr. Phillip R. Spangler
Director
Division of Local Health
Cabinet for Human Resources
275 East Main Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request a formal opinion of this office on the question concerning whether or not the compensating tax rate, as set forth in KRS 132.010(6), is applicable to public health taxing districts created pursuant to KRS 212.720 to 212.760. You say there are two conflicting Attorney General Opinions on this issue, OAG 79-344 and OAG 82-151. In OAG 79-344, the conclusion was that, under KRS 132.023, the compensating tax rate provisions of KRS 132.010(6) apply specifically to public health taxing districts. The compensating tax rate was designed to produce an amount of revenue approximately equal to that produced in the preceding year from real property. In OAG 79-344, the reasoning was that the provisions of KRS 132.023(1) and (2) made the compensating tax rate concept of KRS 132.010(6) applicable. KRS 132.023(1)(a) provides:
"(1)(a) Notwithstanding any statutory provisions to the contrary, no taxing district, other than the state, counties, school districts, cities and urban-county governments, shall levy a tax rate for 1979-80 which will produce more revenue, exclusive of revenue from net assessment growth, than would be produced by application of the maximum tax rate that could have been levied in 1978-79 to the 1978-79 assessment."
Subsection (2) of KRS 132.023 reads:
"(2) No taxing district, other than the state, counties, school districts, cities and urban-county governments, shall levy a tax rate within the limits imposed in subsection (1) of this section which exceeds the compensating tax rate defined in KRS 132.010, until the taxing district has complied with the provisions of subsection (3) of this section."
Notwithstanding the implications of KRS 132.023, a general statute, KRS 212.755(2) provides:
"(2) Public health taxing districts heretofore organized pursuant to the provisions of KRS 212.720 to 212.740 or organized pursuant to this section and KRS 212.750 shall not be subject to the provisions of the compensating tax rate as defined by KRS 132.010 nor to chapter 2, 1965 first extraordinary session of the general assembly; Provided, however, That no public health taxing district shall impose a rate higher than four cents (4 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of full value assessed valuation. "
KRS 212.760 reads:
"Public health taxing districts organized pursuant to KRS 212.720 to 212.755 shall not be subject to the provisions of the compensating tax rate as defined by KRS 132.010; Provided, however, That no public health taxing district shall impose a rate higher than four cents (4 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of full value assessed valuation as provided by KRS 212.755(2)."
As relates to KRS 132.023, a new section was added in the First Extraordinary Session of 1965. It simply provided that notwithstanding any statutory provisions to the contrary, for 1966 and for all subsequent years, no taxing district, other than the state, counties, school districts, and cities, shall levy a tax rate which exceeds the compensating tax rate defined in KRS 132.010. The 1966 amendment merely republished the original statute. The 1972 amendment (Ch. 285, § 2) substituted the year 1972 for 1966.
At this point, in the 1972 Acts (chapter 285) Section 6, a new section was created, which is KRS 212.760, cited above (public health districts not subject to compensating tax rate) . Section 6 came near the end of that legislation, i.e., after Section 2 (republishing KRS 132.023) and should prevail in the narrow and specific area of public health districts. Section 2 applied on a general basis. In that way effect is given to both statutes.
Cawood v. Coleman, 294 Ky. 858, 172 S.W.2d 548 (1943). However, the paramount consideration here is that a specific statute controls a more general statute.
Heady v. Com., Ky., 597 S.W.2d 613 (1980) 614. KRS 212.755(2), first enacted in 1968, contains the same provision that public health districts are not subject to the compensating tax rate. In the 1974 Acts, KRS 212.755(2) was republished.
In the 1979 Extraordinary Session (ch. 25, § 4), the general application of KRS 132.023 (compensating tax rate) was continued. The same is true of the 1980 amendment to KRS 132.023 (ch. 319, § 8).
CONCLUSION
It is our opinion that KRS 212.760, as a specific statute relating to public health districts, controls over KRS 132.023, a general statute. See
Heady v. Com., Ky., 597 S.W.2d 613 (1980) 614. In addition, the republication of KRS 132.023, relating to the basic compensating tax rate, and which re-enactment or republication occurred from time to time after the enactment of KRS 212.760 in 1972, contained no added or superseding effectiveness.
West v. Hedger, Ky., 350 S.W.2d 624 (1961) 625. In those later years (after the 1972 enactment of KRS 212.760), the General Assembly could have spelled out that notwithstanding KRS 212.760, the compensating tax rate concept applied. However, the history of the legislation outlined above indicated that it did not choose to take such action. Thus the compensating tax rate concept of KRS 132.023 does not apply to public health taxing districts, as mentioned in KRS 212.760. The statute does provide that no public health taxing district shall impose a rate higher than four cents (4 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of full value assessed valuation, as provided by KRS 212.755(2).
OAG 79-344 is withdrawn.