Request By:
Mrs. Barbara M. Williams
State Librarian
Department of Library and Archives
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
With your recent letter to the Attorney General there is attached a letter from Mr. J. Robert Jennings, attorney for the Campbell County Public Library Board of Trustees. That letter also has attached a proposed agreement concerning library tax.
In your letter it is stated that KRS 173.360(1) requires the approval of three bodies, the County Library Board, the County Fiscal Court and the State Department of Libraries. The Campbell Fiscal Court has asked for a tax levy under KRS 68.510 to 68.550. The question is whether the method of levy set out in the above statutes concurs with KRS 173.360(1) and does it require concurrence of the three bodies. There is an additional request to review the proposed agreement.
The proposed agreement provides that pursuant to the provisions of KRS 173.360(1) the "Campbell" Fiscal Court shall make an annual appropriation of 3 on each $100 worth of property assessed for local taxation to the Board to provide library service, provided that an ad valorem tax levy of 3 on each $100 worth of property assessed for local taxation for the support of the library is approved by a majority of the voters at the general election to be held November 8, 1977 as authorized by the Fiscal Court in Resolution R-34-77, adopted August 15, 1977.
KRS 173.360(1) provides that after the legislative body of a governmental unit has made provisions for library service according to any of the methods set forth in KRS 173.310, it shall appropriate money annually to furnish such service. In library regions it shall not be less than 3 nor more than 10 on each $100 worth of property assessed for local taxation. In counties containing a city of the first class it shall be not more than 15 on each $100 worth of property assessed. In all other governmental units it shall be not less than 5 nor more than 15 on each $100 worth of property assessed. Where county library service has been established on the initiative of the fiscal court and when an appropriation of less than the minimum amount required by this subsection is proposed, the minimum amount of support for a county library may be determined annually through a mutual agreement of the County Library Board, the County Fiscal Court and the State Department of Libraries. The agreement shall be reflected in the records of the legislative body making the appropriation.
KRS 68.510 to 68.550 are statutes relating to county public service programs. A preamble to the act passed in the 1974 General Assembly, see Acts 1974, Chapter 347, states that these sections were passed to enable counties, upon the approval of the electorate, to initiate public service programs, including programs involving new health services or expansion of existing services and to provide or expand human service programs and that it is necessary that counties be permitted to submit to their electorates such public service programs and recommended financing thereof so that such electorates may either approve or disapprove such programs and financing.
From a reading of the preamble to the act and the statutes themselves, KRS 68.510 through 68.550, these statutes have no application to KRS 173.360(1). If it is determined that the 3 for the appropriation is to be levied it should be mutually agreed upon by the three bodies, the County Library Board, the County Fiscal Court and the State Department of Libraries. Nowhere is there any provision that the electorate is to determine if the 3 rate is applicable.
It would appear, therefore, that KRS 68.510 through 68.550 has nothing to do with KRS 173.360(1). It should not be a part of any agreement entered into by the Kentucky State Department of Library and Archives concerning the 3 appropriation for the Campbell County Public Library System.