Request By:
Mr. Robert W. Thompson, Jr.
Property Valuation Administrator
First Floor
Courthouse
Jessamine County
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: William P. Sturm, Assistant Attorney General
You recently requested an opinion on the applicability of the Kentucky Model Procurement Code to purchases of computer services by Property Valuation Administrators (PVAs). Your letter states:
"I have recently been informed by our county clerk that he and our fiscal court have been advised by Howard Downing, county attorney that bids must be taken for the printing of the 1980 tax bills.
We have already made over 12,000 changes for the 1980 tax roll and feel that the possibility of a change in computer service at this time is not realistic.
We are also in the process of installing a computer terminal and we feel the possibility of a yearly change is not practical.
The cost of making the bills will be .27 per bill or about $3500 total for our county. It is my understanding this cost is shared by the county and the state on an equal basis. Would this $1750 constitute the $2500 maximum the county is allowed before bids are required?"
According to case law, PVAs are state employees,
Jefferson County Fiscal Court v. Trager, Ky., 194 S.W.2d 851 (1946). KRS 132.590(7), 132.590(11) and 132.285 require the county fiscal court, city and urban county governments to appropriate to the PVA's office specified funds for salaries and expenses. OAG 61-708 ruled that once this money is appropriated and commingled with state funds of the PVA's office, it becomes state money.
The statutes require each unit of government to allow all bills submitted by the PVA to it so long as the total expenses do not exceed the budget limit. This is not a discretionary act. Expenses cannot be disallowed unless the money budgeted has been exhausted.
KRS 45A.020 of the Kentucky Model Procurement Code provides: "This Code shall apply to every expenditure of public funds by the Commonwealth under any contract or like business agreement. . . ." KRS 45A.030 states: "Employee shall mean an individual drawing a salary from a governmental body or local public agency, whether they are elected or not, and any nonsalary individual performing personal services for any governmental body or local public agency."
The wording of the statute is so broad that there is little, if any, doubt that it applies to purchases made by a PVA's office. Since all PVA funds are deemed state funds, this act, rather than the local governmental procurement act, KRS 45A.345, applies to PVA purchases.
Furthermore, the cost of the computer service need not be broken down to determine the share that the county and the state each contribute to the cost of such service. The expenditure of this money is by the PVA's office. The source of income to make this purchase is irrelevant. In other words, it is the $3500, not the $1750, which is the determinative factor in requiring bids for services.
For specific procedures to be followed in making expenditures under the Procurement Act, you should contact the Property Valuation Division of the Department of Revenue.