Request By:
Representative Hubert Collins
97th District
Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Herrick, Assistant Attorney General
Statute construed: KRS 186.060
OAG's cited: OAG 95-001, OAG 74-456, OAG 73-6
Opinion of the Attorney General
KRS 186.060 governs the registration and licensing of official vehicles by federal, state, and local governmental units. Representative Hubert Collins, as Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has inquired as to whether certain prior Opinions of the Attorney General are still applicable after the 1996 amendments to KRS 186.060.
In OAG 95-001, OAG 74-456, and OAG 73-6, it was the opinion of this office that a city, county, state agency, or other unit of government could not use an official license plate on a vehicle which was not owned by that governmental unit. This was due to specific language in KRS 186.060(4) that prohibited the use of such plates when the vehicle was "not exclusively owned by [the] governmental unit. " This statute was amended in 1996 so that the term "owned" or "exclusively owned" is now replaced by "leased or owned." The unambiguous intent of this amendment is to allow units of government to use official plates on vehicles leased by them, where such use was formerly prohibited.
It is therefore our conclusion that OAG 95-001, 74-456, and 73-6 should no longer be relied upon insofar as they rely upon the "exclusively owned" language formerly appearing in KRS 186.060. Those opinions are abrogated, to that extent, by the 1996 amendments to the statute.