Request By:
Mr. Edward L. Fossett, Director
Legal and Legislative Services
Department of Education
Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the Office of the Attorney General to issue a clarification of OAG 76-711 as it relates to school revenue bonds. You noted there have been a number of misunderstandings concerning the administrative responsibility for bond issues for school sites as concerns the customary functions of fiscal courts and city councils.
In OAG 76-711 we discussed the statutory amendments found in House Bill 73 of the 1976 General Assembly, Regular Session, wherein each local board of education became the tax levying authority for all school taxes. This provision was codified in part in KRS 160.455 and 160.460. We further noted that House Bill 73 also amended KRS 160.080 and 162.090, which provisions pertain only to voted general obligation bonds of school districts. We then concluded that "the local boards of education must now by statute assume all administrative responsibility concerning the school bond issues in question."
As the late Honorable Edward P. Hill, Judge, Court of Appeals of Kentucky, once stated in an opinion: "A careless foxhound may sometimes lead the whole pack astray." Scott v. Commonwealth, Ky., 495 S.W.2d 800, 802 (1973). We are of the notion that is exactly what has occurred in OAG 76-711. Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with school finance should be aware that financing is now being done almost exclusively through school building revenue bonds pursuant to the authority of KRS 162.120 through 162.300 and KRS 58.010 through 58.120, inclusive. See, for example, City of Bowling Green v. Board of Education, Ky., 443 S.W.2d 243 (1969). House Bill 73, 1976 General Assembly, Regular Session, did not amend, modify or revise KRS 162.120 to 162.300 (school building revenue bonds). Thus, there is no authority for any change in the pre-existing administrative procedure used for school building revenue bonds. Fiscal courts and county treasurers must continue to perform the customary functions heretofore served by them in that regard.
Therefore, in view of the above, the opinion of this office, OAG 76-711, is hereby modified to the extent discussed in this opinion.