Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2014-021

December 18, 2014
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2014- 21
Dr. Rob Edleston, President and CEO
Manhattan Area Technical College
3136 Dickens Ave.
Manhattan, KS 66503
Re: 	Cities 	and 	Municipalities—General 	Provisions—City 	Retailers’ 	Sales
Taxes; Use of Revenue; Technical Colleges
Synopsis: 	A city may levy a retailers’ sales tax for the purpose of providing funds to a
technical college if doing so serves a valid public purpose. 	If the electors
of a city, by voting to approve a proposed sales tax, determine that
providing funds to a technical college serves a valid public purpose, a
court would likely defer to that judgment. Cited herein: K.S.A. 2014 Supp.
12-187; K.S.A. 72-4469; 72-4475.
* 	* 	*
Dear Dr. Edleston:
On behalf of the Manhattan Area Technical College, you request our opinion on whether
a city may levy a retailers’ sales tax for the purpose of providing funds to a technical
college when the technical college itself has no taxing authority under state law.1
We believe your question is substantially answered by Attorney General Opinion No.
2001-14, which concluded that a city could use proceeds from a retailers’ sales tax to
provide financial assistance to a public school district. 	Like technical colleges, public
school districts have no authority to levy a sales tax. 2 But that is beside the point — the
sales tax would be levied by the city, which does have authority to levy a sales tax
1 The technical college statutes are found at K.S.A. 72-4469 et seq. 	K.S.A. 72-4475 establishes the
Manhattan Area Technical College.
2 School districts do, of course, have authority to levy other taxes, but we fail to see how that is a relevant
distinction when the tax at issue is a sales tax.

Rob Edleston
Page 2
under K.S.A. 12-187 et seq. The only question is whether money raised by a city sales
tax may be provided to a technical college.
As Attorney General Opinion No. 2001-14 noted, public funds may only be used for a
valid public purpose. 	Given the deference paid to legislative bodies, Attorney General
Opinion No. 2001-14 concluded that a court would likely find that providing funds to a
public school serves a valid public purpose, namely economic development. Similarly, if
the electors3 of a city, by voting to approve a proposed sales tax, determine that
providing funds to an area technical college serves a valid public purpose, we believe a
court would likely defer to that judgment.
Sincerely,
Derek Schmidt
Attorney General
Dwight Carswell
Assistant Attorney General
DS:AA:DC:sb
3 While Attorney General Opinion No. 2001-14 referred to a decision of a local governing body, you
indicate that the proposal for providing funds to the Manhattan Area Technical College involves placing
the sales tax question on the ballot by a petition in accordance with K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 12-187(a). We do
not believe the distinction between a question placed on the ballot by the governing body and one placed
on the ballot by petition is material in determining whether the use of funds serves a legitimate public
purpose, particularly since in either case the sales tax must receive the approval of a majority of the
voters at an election in order to take effect. See K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 12-187(a).