Request By:
Mr. Michael A. Trabue
Attorney
Chicago Title Insurance Company
Suite 1400 Louisville Trust Building
One Riverfront Plaza
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General on the following question:
"May the current and delinquent real estate ad valorem tax roles of a county or municipality be reproduced by microfilm, computer tape, or any other reproductive device and copies of the same be sold to private business interests engaged in the searching and reporting of real estate titles?"
Our opinion on your question is in the negative.
Since there is a particular statute dealing with the question of public inspection of real estate tax roles, the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, does not figure in this opinion. The pertinent statute is KRS 133.045 which provides that the tax role shall be open for inspection for 5 days in June of each year and shall be available to the public at other reasonable times so long as the inspection of the role or disclosure of information contained therein will not be detrimental to public interests or used for commercial or business purposes unrelated to property valuation and assessment. The wording of the statute indicates that the purpose of opening the tax roles to public inspection is for the tax payers to be able to compare the tax assessments on different parcels of real estate. The Legislature apparently intends that the tax role shall not be used for business or commercial purposes. We discussed this question in OAG 78-549 (copy enclosed).