Clay County v. Leslie County

CULLEN, Commissioner.

By KRS 143.020, enacted in 1972, Kentucky levies a “severance tax,” relating to coal, “on every taxpayer measured by the coal severed.” The tax is at the rate of four percent of the gross value of the coal severed but not less than thirty cents per ton. By KRS 143.010, “severance” is defined to mean “the physical removal of coal from the earth,” and “taxpayer” is defined to mean any person “engaged in severing coal.”

Provision is made in KRS 42.300, enacted in 1974, for allocation of a portion of the total state-wide severance-tax collections among the “coal producing…