Request By:
Mr. W. P. Hendrickson
Bell County Judge-Executive
Bell County Courthouse
Pineville, Kentucky 40977Mr. Hickory Grace
Bell County Property Valuation Administrator
P.O. Box 255
Pineville, Kentucky 40977
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter raising a question concerning the validity of the expenditure of county funds for a certain person's salary.
Beginning in 1974, the Bell County Fiscal Court began to pay the salary of a person whose work involved traveling through the county locating new homes, mobile homes and heavy equipment used in strip mining operations. Such information was and is used in assessing taxes due the county on items which had not previously been included in the tax assessment. The person was hired by the fiscal court; his salary was included in the county budget approved by the state; his salary was paid by the county and he received the same fringe benefits received by other county employes. The fiscal court is satisfied with the person's work and his activities have resulted in increased tax collections. It appears that the additional taxes collected as a result of his work are much greater than his annual salary.
Your specific question is whether the county can legally pay the salary of this particular person in connection with his work which involves searching for property in the county which is taxable but not yet actually taxed.
KRS 132.420, dealing with the powers and duties of the property valuation administrator, provides in subsection (1) that the property valuation administrator shall, subject to the direction, instruction and supervision of the Department of Revenue, make the assessment of all property in his county except as otherwise provided, prepare property assessment records, and have such other powers and duties relating to assessment as may be prescribed by law or by the Department of Revenue.
KRS 132.590(6) provides in part that each property valuation administrator may appoint any persons approved by the Department of Revenue to assist him in the discharge of his duties. Each deputy must be more than twenty-one years of age and may be removed at the pleasure of the property valuation administrator. The salaries of deputies and other authorized personnel shall be fixed by the property valuation administrator in accordance with the grade classification system established by the Department of Revenue. No state funds available to any property valuation administrator's office as compensation for deputies or other authorized personnel or for other authorized expenditures shall be paid without authorization of the Department of Revenue prior to the employment by the property valuation administrator of deputies or other authorized personnel or the incurring of other authorized expenditures.
Thus, the person involved is not and cannot become an employe of the property valuation administrator and, furthermore, he has no authority to assess property, as the provisions of the above-mentioned statutes have not been satisfied.
However, KRS 132.605 provides as follows:
"(1) The fiscal court of each county shall have jurisdiction and the power to purchase and supply to the property valuation administrator any maps, lists, charts, materials, supplies, equipment or instruments which are reasonably necessary for a complete and accurate assessment of property in the county. The department of revenue is authorized to purchase and loan any property valuation administrator such maps, lists, charts, materials, supplies, equipment or instruments as are urgently needed by any property valuation administrator, provided that the department of revenue keeps a record thereof.
(2) The fiscal court of any county shall provide for the maintenance of all maps, lists, charts, materials, supplies, equipment or instruments owned by a county or supplied to it by the department of revenue or by any source in cooperation with the department of revenue for the purpose of facilitating the assessment of property. "
In Veith v. Dunlap, 308 Ky. 386, 214 S.W.2d 608 (1948), the Court considered whether a fiscal court could, pursuant to KRS 132.605, employ seven persons as clerks in view of the urgent necessity to compile material and information enabling the board of tax supervisors to list omitted property. The fiscal court had employed the seven persons as clerks and investigators to compile the material and furnish the information, maps, etc., which enabled the board to list the omitted property. It would have been impossible for the board to have done so without the to have done so without the assistance of the extra clerical help furnished by the fiscal court.
The Court concluded in part, at page 610 of its opinion, as follows:
"These averments in the answer clearly bring this case under the provisions of KRS 132.605, which section authorized the employment of these seven persons and sustains the chancellor's judgment in holding that the Fiscal Court had the right to employ and pay them. . . ."
Thus, in our opinion, the county may, pursuant to KRS 132.605, legally hire and pay the salary of a person whose work involves searching for property in the county which has been omitted from the tax lists if such work is reasonably necessary for a complete and accurate assessment of property in the county.