Request By:
Mr. David H. Thomason
County Attorney
Henderson County Courthouse
Henderson, Kentucky 42420
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General, it is stated that attorney title examiners in Henderson have encountered problems in other counties when asking the Property Valuation Administrator to inspect aerial photographs and examine their records covering the assessed vatuation of various properties.
The question is whether a Property Valuation Administrator is required to make available to attorneys aerial photographs and file cards in their office which show the assessed value of real property in the county.
We are advised by the Department of Revenue that there are two types of maps in the Property Valuation Administrator's office. Aerial photographs and blue line prints. The blue line prints are made from a property map taken off the aerial photograph. The blue line prints are then bound and placed in plat books. On the recommendation of the Department of Revenue, the photographs, due to their fragile nature, are stored for safekeeping in the Property Valuation Administrator's office or in the county clerk's vault. The blue line print plat book is open for public inspection. An index is provided for the plat books which makes it comparatively easy for a title examiner to use. The plat books are the records which would be of the greatest benefit to the examiner.
There are two types of property record cards in the Property Valuation Administrator's office. In those counties where the Department of Revenue conducted a reappraisal of the property, the card has data which refers only to the valuation of the real property in question. The other type of card is a tax return made by the taxpayer himself in lieu of the standard tax return. This card lists all of his property, real and personal. This type of card probably falls under the provisions of KRS 61.878(1)(a) as a public record containing information of a personal nature, the public disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
We cannot say that as a general rule all records in the Property Valuation Administrators' offices are open for public inspection by a title examiner. Each situation must be considered on an individual basis.
The Property Valuation Administrator and his records are under the supervision and control of the Department of Revenue. The provisions of Regulation 200 KAR 1:020, Section 3, covering access to public records is applicable. Under that section a person may, on written application to the official custodian describing the records, inspect and make abstracts and memoranda of the contents. The inspection is to be made in the presence of an employee of the agency, on the premises, during usual office hours.
There is nothing that can be obtained from an aerial photograph or property record card that cannot be obtained from the blue line print and the accompanying index in a plat book.
We also call to your attention KRS 133.045(2). This section, which was amended by the 1976 General Assembly, makes the tax roll in the Property Valuation Administrator's office available to the public at reasonably times in a manner which does not unduly interfere with the operation of the custodian's office so long as the inspection of the roll or the disclosure of the information contained therein is not detrimental to the public interest or is not used for commercial or business purposes unrelated to property valuation and assessment.