Request By:
Mr. Charles S. Vice
Executive Director
Kentucky Education Association
401 Capitol Avenue
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: FREDERIC J. COWAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Anne E. Keating, Assistant Attorney General (502) 564-7600
In your recent letter you requested an interpretation of House Bill 940, passed by the 1990 Kentucky General Assembly on education reform. In particular, you asked for clarification on the equivalent tax rate that a district board of education may levy. You are specifically concerned with the Jefferson County School District, which has an equivalent tax rate of 75.9 cents for the 1989-90 school year. You ask whether the Jefferson County School District may keep its equivalent tax rate at this same level for the 1990-1991 school year.
In House Bill 940, the General Assembly amended various sections of school tax law, setting new standards for local effort. A new minimum equivalent tax rate of thirty cents (30 cents) for general school purposes must be levied by the board of education of each school district for school years beginning after June 30, 1990. See Section 105(12)(a), amending KRS 160.470.
A new maximum equivalent tax rate is set by Section 107(2) of House Bill 940, which amends KRS 157.440. This provision continues to allow districts to exceed the maximum rate set forth in subsection (2) of KRS 160.470, so long as the district presents the matter to the voters. The rate, however, that may be levied under House Bill 940, may produce revenue only up to and including 30 percent of the revenue guaranteed to the district by Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (the SEEK program). This is the limit beyond which no district may levy taxes.
An exception to this limit, however, is provided in paragraph (1)(c) of Section 107, which provides that any school district, which is at or above the equivalent tax rate permitted, shall not be required to levy an equivalent tax rate which is lower than the rate levied during the 1989-90 school year.
This office has no information to indicate whether the equivalent tax rate in Jefferson County of 75.9 cents is above the maximum permitted in KRS 157.440(2). If it is not above the maximum permitted tax rate, then clearly it is permissible. If it is above the maximum permitted tax rate, it remains permissible because it is the same rate as that levied during the 1989-90 school year.
Therefore, it is our opinion that Jefferson County may keep its equivalent tax rate at 75.9 cents for the 1990-91 school year.