Request By:
Mr. Ed Burtner
Public Administration Specialist
Big Sandy Area Development District
130 North Lake Drive
Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have questions concerning water districts:
Question 1:
"Does the water commission of a water district organized under KRS 74 have the power to tax through ad valorem taxes or through any other type of tax?"
A water district is a political subdivision and a quasi municipal corporation. The statutes permit it to issue revenue bonds and to make assessments against benefited properties. The assessments are in proportion to benefits. See KRS 74.130. However, the statutes do not provide for the district's levying an ad valorem [or any other tax] tax.
Theobald v. Board of Comr's of Buechel Water Dist., 288 Ky. 720, 157 S.W.2d 285 (1941). The General Assembly has authority to delegate the tax levying authority. See §§ 157, 171 and 181. Here, however, the General Assembly has yet not delegated the tax levying authority, in the strict constitutional sense, to water districts.
Question No. 2, which assumes an affirmative answer to question no. 1, does not require an answer.