Request By:
Honorable Julian M. Carroll
Governor
Capitol Building
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 render an opinion relative to the subject of the possibility of supplemental funds being provided to local school districts under the Minimum Foundation Program. In your letter you indicated you had been approached by local superintendents of schools concerning the matter.
The proposed supplemental allocations would be made by increasing the value of "other current expenses" of a classroom unit. Such proposal stems from the burden of the severe winter upon local school district operating budgets.
Your specific question is whether authority exists for increasing the value of the "other current expenses" category of a classroom unit above the levels appropriated by the 1976 General Assembly. It is the opinion of this office that no such authority exists.
In support of the above conclusion we refer you to the school laws on state support of education, specifically KRS 157.390(3). This statutory provision reads as follows:
"(3) The amount to be included in the foundation program for other current expenses shall be determined by multiplying the number of classroom units by the amounts set forth in the biennial budget. "
The Biennial Appropriations Act, Chapter 27, 1976 Extraordinary Session Acts, at page 235, provides in pertinent part that:
"The amount to be included in the foundation program for other current expenses shall be determined by multiplying the number of classroom units by: $2,189 in the 1976-77 school year; and $2,364 in the 1977-78 school year. "
The provisions of KRS 157.390(3) and the Biennial Appropriation Act are precise and leave no room for interpretation or for flexibility.
From the above it is clear that the school law on "other current expenses" turns you to the biennial budget. The biennial budget, in language parrotting that of the school law, explicitly provides the dollar figure for each of the school years in the biennium and directs the number of classroom units be multiplied respectively by these figures to arrive at the amount to be paid from the Foundation Program for other current expenses. Nothing could be more plain. Thus, it is the opinion of this office that no authority exists for anyone during the present biennium to increase the value of the "other current expenses" category of a classroom unit above the established levels appropriated by the 1976 General Assembly.