Request By:
Ms. Henrietta Adams
Letcher County Health Department
P.O. Box 300
Whitesburg, Kentucky 41858
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You and other employees of the Letcher County Health Department have requested an opinion as to the legality of certain action taken by the Letcher County Fiscal Court.
Recently your fiscal court voted to repeal the county health tax of 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed value of property. That tax was previously established by a referendum vote of the people of Letcher County. In the General Election held November 7, 1961, a public health district was established by a vote of the people. The district has the authority to impose a special tax for the maintenance and operation of the Letcher County Health Department.
Your question is whether the fiscal court's attempted repeal of the district health tax was legal?
We assume the public health district was established pursuant to KRS 212.720. The members of the County Board of Health at the same time constitute the governing body of the public health taxing district. KRS 212.720. The health district is a taxing district under § 157 of the Kentucky Constitution. The district governing body has the authority to levy the special district health ad valorem tax. KRS 212.725.
A significant fact is that KRS Chapter 212 contains no provisions for dissolution of the public health taxing district. Cf. KRS 173.800, expressly providing for dissolution of a library district. See Padgett v. Sensing, Ky., 438 S.W.2d 501 (1969). However, even if the courts would recognize the implied theory that the people (the voters) could destroy what they have created through the election process, the point is that dissolution would require the identical method employed to create the district, namely, a majority vote of the people. See KRS 212.720.
It is our opinion that the fiscal court has no statutory authority to repeal or abolish the district health tax in question. Its attempted action was a mere nullity. As we said above, the law of district dissolution generally follows the principle that the method of dissolution must be identical with the method of creation. Here the fiscal court did not create this district. It was created by a vote of the people. Of course the existence of the district and its power to tax must be viewed inseparably in terms of dissolution.
Finally, it is axiomatic that a fiscal court may exercise only such powers as the legislature has expressly delegated to it by statute. Fiscal Court v. City of Louisville, Ky., 559 S.W.2d. 478 (1977) 481. See KRS 67.080 and 67.083.