Tagged: special taxing districts

The No. 1 priority for the Kentucky House in 2013 is set: Tackling recommendations from a recent report that found that special taxing districts have big budgets and little oversight.

Auditor Adam Edelen recently finished a report on the districts, detailing billions of dollars in spending with little to no oversight in most areas. Special taxing districts include the Metropolitan Sewer District and library boards.

Taken together, Kentucky's special taxing districts spend more money than the state spends on Medicaid and infrastructure -- and nearly half of those districts are not following rules on filing budgets or submitting audits, said a report from State Auditor Adam Edelen released Wednesday. 

A special taxing district is a quasi-governmental agency that collects fees or taxes, such as library boards, soil districts and health districts.

Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen is encouraging local officials to help him find out about the state’s hundreds of special taxing districts.

A special taxing district is a quasi-governmental agency—such as a local sewer system or public library—that gets its funds from a separate tax.

No one knows how many such districts there are in the state. And since the spring, Edelen has set out to find and catalog all of the districts, then see if any are abusing public funds.