Request By:
Ms. Tamara P. Dunaway
Property Valuation Administrator
Estill County
P.O. Box 241
Irvine, Kentucky 40336
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General three questions are asked concerning the responsibilities of the Estill County Property Valuation Administrator in listing, assessing and taxing of property located in watershed conservancy districts. These questions are as follows.
1. What are the responsibilities of the conservancy district in compiling an accurate list for this office and the tax roll?
Answer: See KRS 262.765 effective June 17, 1978. That section provides generally that the Board of Directors of a watershed conservancy district shall prepare and furnish to the property valuation administrator by January 1 each year a list of the land owners in each county involved in the district showing the real property subject to assessment. The property valuation administrator of the county or counties involved shall indicate for the use of the county clerk such information on the tax rolls.
The list furnished the property valuation administrator by the Board of Directors shall list the land owners in alphabetical order by taxing districts as shown on the previous year's tax roll. The total acreage and the acreage in the watershed conservancy districts shall be listed that is owned by each land owner. There shall also be shown that part of the previous year's assessment attributable to the real property within the watershed conservancy district on those parcels which are not entirely within the district.
2. What are the responsibilities of the PVA office concerning the watershed district and accepting lists for the tax roll?
Answer: See answer to question No. 1.
3. Can a deputy in the county clerk's office copy the PVA assessment and turn it over to the conservancy district based on her opinion of the assessment in the district and it be used for the following years' district assessment?
Answer: No. The assessment of the property within the district is by law the responsibility of the property valuation administrator. This is made clear in subsection (2) of KRS 262.765 which requires that the property tax rolls be delivered to the county clerk by the property valuation administrator, as required by law. The information furnished to the county clerk is used to compute the tax due the districts from each land owner in accordance with the rate fixed by the Board of Directors and the value of the real property as indicated on the tax roll.