KRS 149.540: County payments to statewide system -- Power to require owners to

participate -- Adjustments in acreage.

(1) After January 1, 1959, all counties receiving state forest fire protection and all

counties having received notice of the intended establishme nt of such service shall

annually pay to the cabinet a sum equivalent to two cents ($0.02) per acre of

privately owned timberlands according to the most current United States Forest

Service Survey of Kentucky subject to additions and deductions of acreage since the

making of such study. Such payments shall be due and payable on September 15

following the assessment.

(2) Contributions may be met out of the general funds of the county and in addition the

fiscal court may require each owner of timberland in th e county to participate

directly by paying into a special county forest fire protection fund an assessment not

exceeding three cents ($0.03) per year for each acre of timberland of which he is the

owner.

(3) In any case in which the cabinet and the governing body of any county cannot agree

upon the additions or deductions to privately owned forest acreage in a particular

county, or to changes in forest acreage from year to year, the question shall be

submitted to the judge of the Circuit Court of the county by a summary and

informal proceeding, and a decision of the judge, certified to the governing body

and to the cabinet respectively, shall be conclusive and final.