Request By:
Mr. Bobby G. Vance
Property Valuation Administrator
Georgetown, Ky. 40324
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question is whether the Fiscal Court of Scott County can appoint an Extension Service Board, and if so appointed, can it (the board) levy a tax on people of Scott County?
An extension district is authorized for each county. The boundaries of the district encompass the entire county. The district is a political subdivision and public body corporate. KRS 164.620. The district is created by the Fiscal Court of the particular county. This means a formally voted order or resolution.
Pursuant to KRS 164.630, the Fiscal Court may create an Extension Board by formal order or resolution. The Extension Board is composed of the County Judge Executive and six (6) other citizens residing within the extension district.
Since the authority for the Fiscal Court's levying the district tax has been repealed (1978 Acts, Ch. 118, Sec. 19, repealing KRS 164.665), the district board by implication has the authority to levy the tax.
The purpose of the district is to aid in the dissemination of agricultural practices and education throughout the state. KRS 164.610. The Extension District Board is designed to serve as an agency of the state, to manage and transact all of the business and affairs of its district, and to have authority to acquire property necessary for its function. It has the power to formulate a district budget and to collect the district taxes and expend such funds for the exclusive work of the district. The district, through the Extension Board, has fiscal and administrative powers independent of the County or Fiscal Court. It has a basic autonomy.
CONCLUSION
1. The Fiscal Court, upon creating an Extension District, may create an Extension Board for the particular County Extension District. KRS 164.620 and 164.630.
2. Once the Extension Board is created, it has the authority to levy a district extension education tax for district purposes. See KRS 164.670; and Sec. 157, Kentucky Constitution. Since KRS 164.665 was repealed in 1978, the specific monetary limitations on the tax rate fell with the repeal. However, it is our opinion that the extension board cannot levy the tax at a rate to exceed the maximum rate for taxing districts (fifty cents (50 ) on the hundred dollars ($100)). The Extension District is a separate taxing district. See Boggs v. Reep, Ky., 404 S.W.2d 24 (1966); and Lowery v. County of Jefferson, Ky., 458 S.W.2d 168 (1970). Finally, the Extension Board cannot knowingly and deliberately levy the tax such that the tax revenue substantially exceeds the annual budget and district functional needs. This is based upon the principle that governmental units cannot build up surplus revenues through taxation except where a statute expressly provides for it. See 72 Am. Jur. 2d, State & Local Taxation, Sec. 715, pages 51-52. The statutes relating to extension districts in KRS Chapter 164 reasonably suggest by strong implication that the tax must be calculated to meet only the annual budgetary and functional needs of the extension district. 84 C.J.S., Taxation, Sec. 352, pp. 682-683.