Request By:
Mr. William Stenger
Finance Director
City of Covington
City Hall
Covington, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Mark Neikirk, Staff Writer, The Kentucky Post, has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of access to public records in your office showing the total amount of city payroll tax received by the City from St. Elizabeth Medical Center North. Mr. Neikirk states that he is not requesting access to the specific amount of payroll tax paid by any individual employee of the hospital, but only the total amount received by the City from all employees of the Hospital. In denying Mr. Neikirk's request to inspect the record you cited a 1957 city ordinance, Covington Code, section 222 (G).
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that records showing the total amount of city payroll tax received by the City from St. Elizabeth Medical Center North are not exempt from public inspection. We so conclude despite KRS 131.190 which provides, in part, as follows:
"(1) No present or former commissioner or employee of the Department of Revenue, member of a county board of supervisors, property valuation administrator or employee thereof, or any other person, shall divulge any information acquired by him of the affairs of any person, or information regarding the tax schedules, returns or reports required to be filed with the department or other proper officer, or any information produced by a hearing or investigation, insofar as the information may have to do with the affairs of the person's business. . . ."
We believe that any records containing information concerning tax reports are exempt from mandatory public inspection by KRS 61.878(1)(j):
"Public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the General Assembly."
However, we do not believe that the total amount of payroll tax paid by an employer is required to be kept confidential by KRS 131.190 since that information does not have "to do with the affairs of the person's business". In OAG 77-586 we held that detailed reports by hotels and motels of their occupancy and gross revenues which were filed with the Department of Finance of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government were made confidential by KRS 131.190 since they had to do with the operation of a private business. We believe that the total amount of payroll tax paid is a different matter and is not confidential.
Records which are made confidential by a city ordinance are not exempt from mandatory public disclosure by the Open Records Law, KRS 61.878(1).
A copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester as directed by statute. You have the right to challenge this opinion in court as provided by KRS 61.880(5).