Request By:
Mr. Dale M. Morris
Larue County Attorney
Courthouse
Hodgenville, Kentucky 42748
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
KRS 212.750 establishes a public health taxing district for counties which had not previously elected to establish same under KRS 212.720.
Two (2) questions emerge from the ability of said district to request the imposition of a health tax;
1. Is the fiscal court's imposition of said tax permissive under KRS 212.755(1) where the key word is may impose;
2. Is this tax levy restricted by house bill 44 which limits the county's increase in property taxes?
We thus assume that you had a public health taxing district automatically created by law under KRS 212.750.
Assuming that the conditions in KRS 212.755(1) (insufficient money to meet public health needs) are met, the county or city-county board of health as the governing body of the public health taxing district, with approval of DHR, shall request the fiscal court to impose by resolution a special ad valorem public health tax not in excess of four cents (4 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of full value assessed valuation. KRS 212.755(1) reads in part:
"The fiscal court may upon receipt of a duly certified copy of said resolution, include in the next county ad valorem tax levy said special public health tax imposed by the county or city-county board of health which shall be in addition to all other county ad valorem taxes." (Emphasis added).
It is our view that the legislature, in connection with a health taxing district under both KRS 212.725 and 212.755, intended to make each type of health district a separate or special taxing district under § 157 of the Kentucky Constitution. The language of both statutes read together indicates that the fiscal court, when so requested by the health district board, is required to make the health district tax levy an integral part of the county's tax levying and collecting machinery. Statutes in pari materia are not to be considered isolated fragments of law, but as a whole or as a part of a connected system, unless a different purpose is clearly shown.
Dieruf v. Louisville & Jefferson County Bd. of Health, 304 Ky. 207, 200 S.W.2d 300 (1947).
Thus under the doctrine of pari materia, and when reading the entire context of KRS 212.725 and 212.755, the fiscal court, when properly requested by the health district board, is mandatorily required to levy the health tax as a part of the county's ad valorem tax machinery. KRS 446.010(20) states that "may" is usually permissive, unless the context requires otherwise. Here the context requires otherwise. See
Trimble County v. Trimble County Board of Health, KY. App., 587 S.W.2d 276 (1979), in which the Court of appeals sustained a mandamus requiring fiscal court to comply with a public health district tax request under KRS 212.725 by levying the tax requested.
We find no rational basis for a distinction between a public health district created under KRS 212.720 and one created under KRS 212.750. As we said, both types of districts were intended to be special taxing districts under § 157, Constitution.
As concerns question no. 1, the fiscal court is required to levy the tax which is properly presented by the public health district board, pursuant to KRS 212.755.
Concerning question no. 2, as to whether H.B. 44 limits in effect the public health district tax which is levied by the county, the answer is "no". Subsection (2) of KRS 212.755 and KRS 212.760 make the point clearly that as to both types of districts (under KRS 212.725 and 212.755) the usual roll-back features applicable to the county's own ad valorem tax rate shall not apply to such health district tax rates. See KRS 132.010 and KRS 68 245 (county ad valorem tax rate structure, which now has H.B. 44 appended to it). The statutes are clear on that point. In addition, such health districts are separate taxing districts under § 157, Constitution, and under the limitations imposed on such health districts, there is no constitutional problem.