Request By:
Eugene F. Mooney, Secretary
Department for Natural Resources
and Environmental Protection
Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, KY 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: David K. Martin, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General concerning county payments to the statewide system of forest fire protection established pursuant to K.R.S. 149.510 to 149.600. K.R.S. 149.540(1) directs that counties receiving state forest fire protection shall annually pay to the department a sum equivalent to two cents per acre of privately owned timberlands. K.R.S. 149.540(2) states:
(2) Contributions may be met out of the general funds of the county and in addition the fiscal court may require each owner of timberland in the county to participate directly by paying into a special county forest fire protection fund an assessment not exceeding three cents ($ .03) per year for each acre of timberland of which he is the owner.
K.R.S. 149.580 specifies the manner in which timberland assessments are collected when a county decides to assess timberland owners for all or part of the amount owed to the department by the county. The collection procedures set out in K.R.S. 149.580 authorize the sheriff to collect the timberland assessments in the same manner as state, county and district taxes, with the same discounts and penalties provided in K.R.S. 134.020. Your question is, can the discounts provided for in K.R.S. 134.020 reduce the amount of money due and payable to the department pursuant to K.R.S. 149.540?
The answer to your question is no. K.R.S. 149.590 defines the county forest fire protection fund, and says that the assessments collected by the sheriff from each timberland owner, together with penalties, shall constitute the fund. The statute requires that the fund shall be used only for making payments to the department in accordance with the provisions of K.R.S. 149.540. It is clear on the face of these statutes that the sheriff collects timberland assessments on behalf of the county. If, for whatever reason, the assessments collected from timberland owners and deposited in the county forest fire protection fund are insufficient to cover the amount due to the department from the county, the county is obligated to make up the difference from general funds of the county, as specifically authorized by K.R.S. 149.540(2). The legislature obviously anticipated the potential for collection shortfalls due to various causes by allowing counties to levy timberland assessments of up to three cents per acre, when the maximum amount due to the department could only be two cents per acre. No other purpose can be assumed for this assessment authority, since under K.R.S. 149.590 assessments collected can only be used for making payments to the department pursuant to K.R.S. 149.540.
In conclusion, we are of the opinion that the collection procedures set out in K.R.S. 149.580 have no legal impact on the amount of money a county owes the department pursuant to K.R.S. 149.540(1) for forest fire protection.