Opinion ID: 2275793
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: application: krs 68.197; krs 67.083(2).

Text: Casey County Fiscal Court v. Burke, Ky., 743 S.W.2d 26 (1988) was an appeal from a circuit court judgment holding that there was no statutory authority for a legislative body of a county with a population of less than 30,000 to levy an occupational license fee. Though agreeing with the circuit court that KRS 68.197 had no application to such counties, we held, however, that KRS 67.083(2) expressly relates to a delegation of taxation authority to `any county' without exception. Burke, supra, at 27. It was argued in Burke that the 1986 amendment of KRS 68.197 was, in fact, a reenactment of that statute with an inferential legislative intent to withhold the power to levy occupational license fees from counties of less than 30,000. In other words, if the legislature had intended to grant such counties the power to levy occupational license fees, it would have said so when it readopted the specific statute relating to such fees rather than in the more general home rule statute. Rejecting that argument, Justice Wintersheimer wrote for a unanimous Court: KRS 68.197 does not apply to counties of less than 30,000. It relates only to counties of 30,000 or more. Any amendments to that statute have no effect on the authority granted to other counties pursuant to KRS 67.083. If the legislature intended to withhold authority from other counties, it would have been necessary to amend KRS 67.083 and not just KRS 68.197. Burke, supra, at 28. It is clear from that unambiguous passage that the 1978 and 1986 amendments of KRS 68.197 did not restrict the authority of a county with a population of less than 30,000 to levy an occupational license fee under KRS 67.083(2).