Request By:
Mr. Douglas L. Greenburg
Mercer County Attorney
Courthouse
Main Street
Harrodsburg, Kentucky 40330
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You and your county judge executive, Mr. I. C. James, request our opinion as to whether or not the Mercer Fiscal Court can donate any money to the Mercer County Fair Board, Inc., for the purpose of reconstructing the grandstands on the fairgrounds, which stands burned last summer. The Fair Board referred to is a nonprofit corporation, which is trying to raise some money to rebuild the grandstands which burned.
The basic powers of the fiscal court are set forth in KRS 67.080 and 67.083. The Supreme Court of Kentucky, in Fiscal Court v. City of Louisville, Ky., 559 S.W.2d 478 (1977), established the principle of strict construction in holding that the granting of fiscal court powers must be delegated in express terms of a thoughtful, purposeful and deliberate delegation of a known power. That was the court's analysis of an effective specific grant of power.
KRS 67.080 once contained subsection (10) which provided that the fiscal court could "appropriate county funds to make provision to secure immigration into the county and to advertise the resources of the county." That subsection was later repealed. However, in Shamburger v. Tierney, Ky., 257 S.W.2d 592 (1953), while the subsection was effective, the court said that the purpose of the subsection was to enable the fiscal courts to advertise the resources of their counties and thus attract immigration. The court said that the fiscal court could engage in any act which would be naturally and directly germane to the purpose of the subsection (10). The court wrote that decorating the Jefferson County Courthouse was not germane to the statutory purpose. A traditional county fair, however, serves that purpose, although the subsection (10) has disappeared.
The next point is whether there is any provision in KRS 67.080 or 67.083 which fairly approximates the old subsection (10) of KRS 67.080.
KRS 67.083(3)(x) provides that the fiscal court may enact ordinances and appropriate funds in performing the following public functions: . . . "(x) promotion of economic development of the county, directly or in cooperation with public or private agencies, including the provision of access roads, land and buildings, and promotion of tourism and conventions." (Emphasis added).
Assuming that the subject Fair Board, Inc., puts on the traditional county fair, it is our opinion that properly budgeted county money could be granted or donated to the corporation for the rebuilding of the grandstands, since the grandstands would be directly used for the larger purpose of promoting the economic development of the county through the advertising of the economic resources of the county. Thus the language of KRS 67.083(3)(x) is express enough to embrace the purpose expressed in the old KRS 67.080(10).