Request By:
R.L. Ballou, Esq.
Attorney at Law
206 North Main Street
P.O. Drawer 724
Corbin, Kentucky 40704
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of February 26, 1979 in which you seek an Opinion concerning the following:
Corbin has a tourist and recreational commission which is charged with expending the revenue generated by the motel tax. Some questions have risen as to whether any motel tax revenue can be used for capital improvements of a recreational nature such as the construction of a baseball park, tennis courts, and the like. It is anticipated that these facilities would be used for state-wide tournaments or at least regional tournaments.
Prior to a 1970 amendment we expressed serious doubt that motel tax revenues could, for example, be used to develop a municipal golf course and other recreational facilities, OAG 68-560; however, the 1970 General Assembly amended KRS 83.350(2) to read as follows:
A portion of the money collected from the imposition of this tax, as determined by the tax levying body, may be used to finance the cost of acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance of facilities useful in the attraction and promotion of tourist and convention business and shall include athletic stadiums. . . .
As you will note from the above quote, which has been carried over in a 1978 amendment to said statute, the Legislature has included among the facilities for which the motel tax can be utilized, athletic stadiums which, as indicated, would be useful in attracting and promoting convention business. The statute also uses the term so as to clearly indicate that athletic stadiums are not the sole use for which the tax money can be utilized but merely represents an illustration of the type of facilities that can be constructed. In view of this we would be of the opinion that the statute would at the same time include the use of such funds for the construction of recreational facilities such as a baseball park, tennis courts, etc., which appear to be in the same general category and which in turn would attract and promote tourist and convention business.