Request By:
Mr. Roth Stratton
WNGO New Director
P.O. Box 679, Paducah Road
Mayfield, Kentucky 42066
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the records of a city containing information as to persons or businesses which are delinquent in paying their occupational taxes are public records which are open to public inspection. You have limited your question to only the names of the delinquent taxpayers and state that you are not concerned about the amount of taxes owed.
It is our opinion that records which will disclose the names of employers who are delinquent in paying occupational taxes are open to public inspection.
A city is a public agency and is subject to the provisions of the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884. Although KRS 131.190 prohibits the disclosure of information from tax records "insofar as the information may have to do with the affairs of the person's business", it does not prohibit the disclosure of the fact that a person is delinquent in paying his taxes. And, although, tax records cannot be made totally available for public inspection because of the restrictions places by KRS 131.190, non-exempted information can be made available, and must be made available, under KRS 61.878(3) which reads:
"If any public record contains material which is not excepted under this section, the public agency shall separate the excepted and make the non-excepted material available for examination."
When a public record contains information of an excepted and a non-excepted nature the public agency can provide access to the non-excepted material either by (1) providing a copy of the record with the excepted material blotted out or deleted, or (2) by providing a list which it has created stating the non-excepted information as derived from the records in its files. In this case, it will probably be easier for the City to prepare a list showing all of the occupational taxpayers who are delinquent without disclosing figures which would give information about the taxpayer's business.