(A) Collection and enforcement.
(1) Upon passage of this section, it shall be the duty of the County Property Valuation Administration’s Office to add the Volunteer Fire Department annual membership charges or subscriber fees to the tax bills of property owners in the county in the manner prescribed in division (A)(3) below.
(2) The Volunteer Fire Department membership charges or subscriber fees shall be collected and distributed by the County Sheriff’s Department. The County Sheriff’s Department shall make distribution of the collected fees to all rural volunteer fire departments whose districts lie totally or partially in the county. The distribution described above will be conducted as prescribed in numerical division (A)(3) below. Unpaid fees or charges shall bear the same penalty as general state and county taxes. This shall be a lien on the property against which it is levied from the time of the levy.
(3) The amount of such fees charged shall be determined by each Volunteer Fire Department Board of Directors or Governing Board and approved by the County Fire Chief’s Association by majority vote. For each mailbox address, the fee determined by the Volunteer Fire Department Board of Directors and the County Fire Chief’s Association shall be added to the property owner’s tax bill. Some property owner’s tax bills may have more than one mailbox address and thus may have more than one Volunteer Fire Department fee. The County Sheriff’s Department will distribute to each Volunteer Fire Department the fee collected from mailbox addresses located in the Volunteer Fire Department’s district.
(4)
In accordance with KRS 75.450(7), the Sheriff is entitled to retain a collection fee of 2.7% of the membership charges or subscriber fees collected.
(5) (a) The following mailing addresses are excepted and waived from the fee requirement, established by this section:
1. Churches;
2. Schools; and
3. Publicly-owned utility companies.
(b) Due to the fact that residents of the Cities of Glasgow, Cave City, and Park City are already assessed a fire district tax, mailing addresses located in the city limits of Glasgow, Cave City, and Park City are excepted and waived from the fee requirement established by this section.
(B) Effective dates and duration. This section is to take effect immediately upon passage by the County Fiscal Court on second reading and publication, according to law. The membership charges or subscriber fees shall be effective with the 2003 tax year and shall be placed on the 2003 property tax bills and on all subsequent years tax bills unless changed by a future ordinance of this Fiscal Court.
(Ord. 385, passed 4-1-2003; Ord. 470, passed 5-6-2008; Ord. 686, passed 10-20-2023)