Request By:
Honorable Melvin Henley
Mayor
City Hall Building
5th Street & Poplar
Murray, Kentucky 42071
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of October 13 in which you raise the following questions:
"The City of Murray does not have a payroll or gross receipts tax. Several council members have asked if such a tax could be levied without the necessity of placing the question on an election ballot.
"If such a tax can be levied without referendum, would it be possible to place the question on the ballot anyway?"
In response to the above questions no statutory authority exists that would permit the question of levying a payroll or gross receipt tax to be placed on the ballot. The city council must determine whether or not such a tax will be levied by the passage of an appropriate ordinance.
Public questions can only be placed on the ballot where there exists a specific statute so authorizing. And in this respect, we refer you to KRS 83A.120 from which we quote in part the following:
"(1) Any public question authorized by statute may be submitted to the voters of a city by either a resolution of the city legislative body or a petition meeting the requirements of this section. . . ." (Emphasis added).