Request By:
Mr. R. Michael Yates
Attorney at Law
113 Clinton Street
Hickman, Kentucky 42050
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You represent the Hickman-Fulton County Riverport Authority located in Hickman, Kentucky. The Authority was created as a city-county agency in 1972. A question has arisen regarding requirements of publication of audits and/or financial statements.
The specific question: What, if anything, is the Authority required to publish in regard to its yearly audit?
The Authority was created pursuant to KRS 65.520. The Authority is a body politic and corporate. KRS 65.520(2). When reading KRS 65.510 to 65.650, we find that a riverport authority is a public or governmental agency or corporation. See KRS 65.530 for purposes and powers of a riverport authority.
Pursuant to KRS 65.580, the city and county governments creating the riverport authority may annually appropriate funds to the authority or may make an annual levy to collect tax on taxable property located in the governmental units for the statutory use of the riverport authority. All such funds shall be turned over to the riverport authority for the purpose of carrying out the duties of such riverport authority.
Cf. KRS 43.070 and KRS 64.810, relating to the audit of accounts of county officers.
KRS 65.570(3), relating to the duties of the secretary-treasurer of the riverport authority, reads:
"(3) The secretary-treasurer shall keep the minutes of all meetings of the authority and shall also keep a set of books showing the receipts and expenditures of the authority. He shall preserve on file duplicate vouchers for all expenditures and shall present to the authority, upon request, complete reports of all financial transactions and the financial condition of the authority. Such books and vouchers shall at all times be subject to examination by the legislative body or bodies by whom the authority was created. He shall transmit at least once annually a detailed report of all acts and doings of the authority to the legislative body or bodies by whom the authority was created."
There is no mention in that statute (KRS 65.570(3)) of the publication of the annual audit.
KRS 424.220 provides, with an exception not applicable here, that "every public officer of any school district, city, county, or subdivision or district less than a county," whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of public funds, "shall at the expiration of each fiscal year prepare an itemized, sworn statement of the funds collected, received, held or disbursed by him during the fiscal year, unless he makes a monthly or quarterly statement pursuant to KRS 424.230. (Emphasis added). Such officer shall, within sixty (60) days after the close of the fiscal year, cause the statement to be published in full in a newspaper qualified under KRS 424.120 to publish advertisements for the city, county or district, as the case may be. Promptly after the publication is made, the officer shall file a written or printed copy of the advertisement with proof of publication, in the office of the county clerk of the county. Within thirty (30) days after publication, the officer shall file with the auditor of public accounts a copy of the newspaper containing the statement.
In addition, KRS 424.220 requires a financial statement and publication thereof on the part of officers of any board or commission of a city, county or district whose duty it is to collect, receive, have the custody, control or disbursement of funds collected from the public in the form of rates, charges or assessments for services or benefits. See KRS 65.530(2) and (3), concerning the rate and charges fixing authority of a riverport authority.
In view of the fact that KRS 65.520(2) establishes a riverport authority as a "body politic and corporate", and considering that it exercises its governmental authority with a virtual autonomy, and considering that it receives and expends taxpayers' money belonging to the city and county who created it and makes certain charges and fixes rates for services or benefits, it is our opinion that KRS 424.220 applies to the riverport authority. Thus it must observe the publication of its annual statement, as described in that statute. See that statute for the detailed requirements of the financial statement. Until the courts decree otherwise, we believe that a riverport authority is a political subdivision of the state with definite local governmental purposes involved in its work. See OAG 69-396 and OAG 72-479, copies attached.
In