Opinion ID: 2446605
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: may the general assembly delegate to the lrc certain authority and responsibility with respect to the commonwealth's application for federal block grants?

Text: Another area of disputed statutes deals with certain duties, responsibilities and authority that the General Assembly gave to the LRC with respect to the Commonwealth's application for Federal Block Grants. Block grants are allocations of sums of money from the United States Government to the various states. Although they are required to be used in nine functional areas, as a practical matter the use of these funds is largely left to the discretion of the recipient state. When the federal tax dollars are delivered to the states they become state controlled money to be spent in accordance with the state budget document. Some block grants consist of 100% federal money, while some require matching state dollars or matching state in-kind services. Most block grants require the expenditure of state funds for personnel, administration costs and use of state facilities. KRS 45.351(1) provides that the various state agencies applying for block grants shall not make continuing application requests. Each application shall be a new one. KRS 45.3511(2) provides that no state agency shall submit a block grant application unless it is . . . approved by the legislative research commission as provided under KRS 45.351 to 45.359 or by the Kentucky general assembly.  (Emphasis added.) KRS 45.355 provides a system where-by the applicant state agency shall, prior to applying to the federal government for grants, submit relevant information about the grant application to the LRC. Following a review, the LRC may direct modification of the grant or may prioritize the grant application with all other state block grant applications. The LRC has the power to modify any application or to overrule the applicant agency's decision to seek the federal funds. KRS 45.356 provides that once the LRC has determined that any grant application should be modified or not sought, it shall notify the applying agency of its decision. Once such notification is received the agency has the right to withdraw or to revise and to resubmit the grant application. The statute in Sections (2) and (3) says that the decision of the LRC as to the content of the grant application or as to whether it shall be submitted is final. KRS 48.160 reiterates that the LRC shall have approval authority over block grant applications. The trial court declared KRS 45.3511(2), KRS 45.355, KRS 45.356(2)-(3) and the described part of KRS 48.160 to be unconstitutional. The court reasoned that the power granted to the LRC under the above statutes constituted lawmaking power after the General Assembly is adjourned and that it was a violation of the separation of powers; viz, that the statutes delegated to a group of legislators the executive power to implement and execute the state budget. We agree. The trial court also addressed the validity of KRS 45.359(1) and (2), a purported non-severability statute, which declares that if any section of KRS 45.351 to KRS 45.358 is declared unconstitutional, then no block grant money received from the United States government shall be spent or allocated unless approved by the General Assembly in regular or special sessions. The court determined that section (1) of KRS 45.359 was unconstitutional because it is an unconstitutional condition upon the power of the Executive offices to administer the budget, and that both sections (1) and (2) of KRS 45.359 contravene the Constitution of Kentucky and thus are void and unenforceable. We disagree. The premise upon which the trial court decided the validity of KRS 45.3511(2), the designated portion of KRS 45.355, KRS 45.356(2) and (3) and the described part of KRS 48.160 is that the budget and the budgetary process of the Commonwealth are purely an executive function and that these statutes permit a clear incursion by the LRC into this function, thus violating the separation of powers doctrine. The court also declared that the actions permitted by these statutes constituted legislating by the LRC when the General Assembly was out of session. As we have said, in the preceding section of this opinion, the budget document, its preparation and particularly its adoption, is within the authority of the Kentucky General Assembly. This authority, this responsibility, lies solely within the province of the General Assembly. The preparation and adoption of a budget is a legislative matter and the General Assembly may not delegate this law making power to the LRC, and again, the General Assembly while in adjournment may not legislate through its agent, the LRC. It is obvious that the power and authority granted to the LRC under these statutes are purely legislative in nature. The key to this conclusion lies in KRS 45.3511(2), which states: No state administering agency shall submit any block grant applications to a federal administrative agency unless approved by the legislative research commission. . . This statute allows the LRC absolute control, without criteria, standards or guidelines, over the process of seeking block grants. Literally tens of millions of dollars are involved in the federal block grant program. Once the money is received, it, in effect, becomes state money. The expenditure of money so received is an appropriation which is a function of the General Assembly. As we have said, many of the federal grants require that matching state funds be committed as a condition of this grant. Such grants, in most cases, require the expenditure of money, allocation and use of state personnel, and the use of state facilities. Such is also the sole province of the General Assembly and cannot be delegated to the LRC. We therefore declare that the sections in question are unconstitutional and affirm the trial court. We are not unaware that the General Assembly meets and legislates for limited periods of time. We are also not unaware that block grants form a substantial percentage of the Kentucky budget document. Millions of federal tax dollars come into our state, and presumably serve our people. We believe that the General Assembly may constitutionally preserve and keep secure its legislative power, in this area, and allow the LRC (or other delegatee) to monitor applications for block grants so long as the authority delegated is not legislative. The General Assembly may allow the LRC to act  as its agent  in matters where it has established adequate standards, guidelines, criteria, findings of fact, tests and other safeguards which will assure that the delegatee is acting within the framework of a legislative plan, and does not exercise such discretion as would constitute law making by such agency. One further point remains. As we have said, the General Assembly in KRS 45.359(1) and (2) enacted a non-severability statute which was declared unconstitutional by the trial court because it imposed an invalid condition on the power of the Governor to administer the budget. Since we have established in Section X of this opinion that the responsibility for the preparation and adoption of the state budget is within the purview of the General Assembly, the premise of the trial court's opinion falls and we find no constitutional infirmity here. We accordingly reverse the trial court.