Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2012-033

December 28, 2012
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2012-33
Pamela Campbell Burton, Counsel
Leavenworth County Fire District No. 1
119 Delaware St., P.O. Box 10
Leavenworth, KS 66048
Re: 	Counties and County Officers—Fire Protection—Districts in Any County—
Fire 	Districts; 	Fire 	Protection 	Reserve 	Fund; 	Source 	of 	Revenue;
Limitations
Synopsis: 	A fire district organized under K.S.A. 19-3601 et seq. may only divert
money from its general fund levy to a special fire protection reserve fund
“by resolution,” as provided in K.S.A. 19-3612c. 	This resolution may,
however, be adopted as part of the district’s budget process. Cited herein:
K.S.A. 12-1,117; 19-119; 19-3601; 19-3612c; 79-2934.
* 	* 	*
Dear Ms. Burton:
As legal counsel for Leavenworth County Fire District No. 1, you ask whether a fire
district may annually budget money into a fire protection reserve fund created pursuant
to K.S.A. 19-3612c.
K.S.A. 79-2934, a provision of the Kansas budget law, states that “[n]o part of any fund
shall be diverted to any other fund . . . except as provided by law.” Accordingly, money
raised by a fire district’s general fund levy (and thus credited to the district’s general
fund) may only be transferred to the district’s fire protection reserve fund as provided by
statute. 	For a fire district organized under K.S.A. 19-3601 et seq., K.S.A. 19-3612c is
the only statute we can identify that would authorize such a transfer.
K.S.A. 19-3612c provides, in relevant part:

Pamela Campbell Burton
Page 2
The governing body of any fire district organized under K.S.A. 19-3601 et
seq., and amendments thereto, is hereby authorized and empowered to
transfer, annually, by resolution, from the general fund of the district any
money credited to such fund, and subject to legal expenditure, which in
the opinion of the governing body will not be needed for general operating
expenses in such year, to a special fund to be established for the
acquisition of fire-fighting equipment, apparatus or machinery or land and
buildings to be used for fire-fighting purposes.
As you note, statutes that authorize other local governmental entities to create reserve
funds provide that money may be “budgeted and transferred” into the reserve fund by
means of an “annually budgeted transfer.” 1 K.S.A. 19-3612c differs from these statutes
in that it requires any transfer to the fire protection reserve fund to occur “by resolution.”
Given the plain text of K.S.A. 19-3612c, we opine that money may not be placed into
the fire protection reserve fund by means of the budget alone.
That being said, we see no reason why a resolution transferring money from a fire
district’s general fund to its fire protection reserve fund cannot be adopted as part of the
district’s budget process. 	Your request letter seems to contemplate that K.S.A. 19-
3612c only authorizes the transfer of “previously budgeted money.” We do not read the
statute in this manner. 	To be sure, K.S.A. 19-3612c only allows a district to transfer
money “which in the opinion of the governing body will not be needed for general
operating expenses in such year.” 	But the district can make this determination at the
time it adopts a budget; nothing in the text of K.S.A. 19-3612c requires the district to first
budget the money for some other purpose and then transfer it to the special reserve
fund.
Sincerely,
Derek Schmidt
Attorney General
Dwight Carswell
Assistant Attorney General
DS:AA:DC:sb
1 See, e.g., K.S.A. 12-1,117 (municipal equipment reserve fund); K.S.A. 19-119 (county equipment
reserve fund).