Request By:
Martin W. Johnson, Esq.
Lovett & Johnson
P.O. Box 450
Benton, Kentucky 42025
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
By letter of July 2, 1991, you ask whether tax revenues generated by a health district under KRS 212.725 can be utilized for operation or funding of a program to provide adult day care.
You explain that the Marshall County Board of Health has received an inquiry regarding utilization of its tax revenue and income from investment of that revenue, for operation and maintenance of an adult day care center at the Marshall County Hospital, on or on adjacent property and operated by hospital staff.
In our view, tax revenues generated from a special ad valorem public health tax (KRS 212.725), and income from investment of such revenues, cannot be lawfully applied to operation or funding of a program for adult day care administered by the Marshall County Hospital.
As provided by KRS 212.725, revenues from a special public health tax are to be used "solely for the maintenance and operation of the county or city-county health department. " There is no statutory authorization for revenues from such a tax to be used in connection with an adult day care program operated by a county hospital. Utilization of special public health tax revenues, or earnings on the investment of such revenues, other than for maintenance and operation of the county or city-county health department would contravene KRS 212.725. Such view is consistent with pertinent statutory language, and with the reasoning expressed in Opinion of the Attorney General (OAG) 62-371, and, OAG 72-210 (copies attached), which we follow here.