Request By:
Hon. Henry H. Dickinson
City Attorney
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of March 18, in which you raise the question as to the county's right to bill the cities of Glasgow, Hiseville, Park City and Cave City for their share of the cost involved in the 1981 general election at which city officers were elected.
Prior to the enactment of amending legislation at the 1980 General Assembly, KRS 117.345 provided in effect that in any election when candidates for city office are voted upon, the city shall bear its proportionate share of the cost of the election. However, at the 1980 session, KRS 117.345 was amended to delete from subsection (1) the requirement that cities must pay their proportionate share of the cost of the election. In the same act amending KRS 117.345, the legislature enacted KRS 83A.050(3) as part of the new municipal code, which reads as follows:
"The city shall pay the costs of city elections only if city elections are held at a time other than prescribed by law for elections generally."
You will note the above statute requires cities to pay the cost of city elections only where the city election is held at a time other than the law prescribes for elections generally. Thus, since city officers can only be elected at general elections in November pursuant to Section 167 of the Constitution and KRS 83A.040, which is the time prescribed for elections generally for all state and local offices, the cities in question would not be liable for any part of the election cost involved at the 1981 general election.