Request By:
Mr. Robert W. Thompson, Jr.
Property Valuation Administrator
Jessamine County
First Floor, Court House
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to the Attorney General you ask if the Jessamine County Fire District may levy a tax rate for 1982 that will produce three times the amount of revenue produced by the 1981 tax rate.
It is impossible to give you an exact answer because of the mathematical calculations involved. Under House Bill 44, codified at KRS 132.023, a taxing district may not levy "a tax rate that will produce more revenue, exclusive of revenue from net assessment growth, than would be produced by application of the tax rate that was levied in the preceding year to the preceding year's assessment." This is the maximum rate. A taxing district may levy a tax rate equal to the compensating tax rate on its own initiative. A taxing district that desires to levy a tax rate that falls between the compensating rate and the maximum rate must comply with the notice requirements of KRS 132.023(3). If a portion of the tax rate to be levied by a taxing district will produce revenue from real property, exclusive of revenue from new property, more than four percent (4%) above the amount of revenue produced by the compensating tax rate, then the tax rate is subject to a recall vote or reconsideration pursuant to KRS 132.017 and the notice requirements of KRS 132.023(3) must be followed.
The Jessamine County Fire District must comply with the above statutory requirements if it desires to raise its 1982 tax rate. It cannot be determined from the facts you have related whether the proposed rate is in excess of the maximum rate that may be charged. It appears, however, that at least a portion of the proposed tax rate may be subject to the notice or recall provisions or both.
KRS 75.040(1) states that upon creation of a fire protection district the trustees of such district may levy a tax rate not exceeding ten cents (10 ) per one hundred dollars ($100) of valuation. The statute states that notwithstanding the provisions of KRS 132.023, this rate shall apply. KRS 132.023(1)(b) provides that "a taxing district which has been authorized to levy a tax and has not yet levied any such tax rate" may "levy a tax rate, the maximum which will not produce more revenue than would have been produced by application of the maximum authorized tax rate in the year authorized to that year's assessments." If there is any conflict between the two statutes, it relates to what rate may be set initially. Concerning your question, however, there is no inconsistency and KRS 132.023 applies whenever an already established rate is increased.