Request By:
Hon. Montie Parks
Estill County Sheriff
Irvine, Kentucky 40336
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The question has arisen as to who is responsible for paying the cost of having tax bills bound into books.
The Department of Revenue annually must furnish each county clerk with the appropriate tax bill forms. Then, under KRS 133.220(2), the county clerk makes out the correct tax bill for each taxpayer in the county whose property has been assessed, etc. After the tax bills are prepared by the county clerk in accordance with the certification of the Department of Revenue, they are delivered to the sheriff for collection. KRS 133.220(3).
KRS 133.220(2) reads in part:
"If the bills are bound, the cost of the binding shall be paid out of the county levy."
Thus, if the tax bills are bound, the cost must be borne by the county, as provided above. The literal language of KRS 133.220 is dispositive of this matter. Barrett v. Stephany, Ky., 510 S.W.2d 524 (1974).
The compensation of the county clerk for preparation of tax bills is covered in KRS 133.240. However, such compensation provisions contain nothing about the cost of binding.