Request By:
Mr. Clifton Banks, Superintendent
Hancock County Schools
Hawesville, Kentucky 42348
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested the Office of the Attorney General to review a matter involving the special school tax question which was submitted to Hancock County voters at the general election in November, 1959. You stated the special school tax question was approved by the voters. Thus, the tax has been in effect since 1960. You noted that when the tax question was submitted to the voters in 1959, there was a very vital need for a new county high school and that this need was the selling point for the tax which resulted in the tax being approved by an overwhelming majority. Your specific question is whether there is any time limit on the special voted school tax approved in 1959. KRS 160.477.
Accompanying your letter was a photocopy of the result reached after research on this matter by the school board's attorney. We greatly appreciate the benefit this writing has afforded us. We also agree with the conclusion.
As the school board's attorney noted, the question you have presented has been squarely considered by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in the case of Fendley v. Board of Education, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 837 (1951), copy attached. The Court "held that there was no necessity to fix a time limit on the tax and that the tax could be levied for an unlimited number of years within the discretion of the Board of Education." Hopson v. Board of Education of Louisville, Ky., 280 S.W.2d 489, 490 (1955), copy attached. See also, OAG 69-193 and 73-674, copies of each attached.