Request By:
Mr. Ramsey Morris
State Representative
Eighth District
Chairman, Area Development
Fund Committee
Hammond Plaza - Building 609
Fort Campbell Blvd.
Hopkinsville, Kentucky 42240
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your letter concerns the Area Development Fund for capital projects for area development districts.
You ask whether interest on such funds can be paid to the districts (A.D.D.). Unfortunately, the legislature has made no provisions for it. Thus it cannot be done.
The legislature has established a general policy relating to the investment of surplus or idle state funds. That statute is KRS 41.380. It creates a state investment commission composed of the governor, the state treasurer, and the commissioner of finance. It specifically mandates that interest earned from such "state investments" shall accrue to the credit of the general expenditure fund of the state, except for the road fund and receipts reflecting contributions and gifts.
Faced with this general statute, we come inevitably but with certainty to the judicial rule that any exception to a general rule of legislative policy must exist in the form of an explicitly stated statutory exception. Hargett v. Kentucky State Fair Board, 309 Ky. 132, 216 S.W.2d 912 (1949) 917. Implied exceptions to the express provisions of a statute are not favored. United Brick & Clay Workers v. Deena Artware (U.S.C.A. -6, 1952) 198 F.2d 637, 644. Implied amendments of statutes are not favored. Fiscal Court of Jefferson County v. City of Anchorage, Ky., 393 S.W.2d 608 (1965).
Our answer to your question is that the General Assembly has established a general policy in enacting the state investment commission statute, KRS 41.380, which requires interest accruing on any state funds to be placed in the general fund of the state treasury. The General Assembly, however, has made no provisions by way of an express statute of exception to apply to the Area Development Fund. Thus the area development districts cannot legally receive interest accruing from the Area Development Fund.