www.loubar.org 6 Louisville Bar Briefs Happy New Year! Kurt X. Metzmeier Happy New Year! Well, at least for those of you who use the Gregorian year. And I don’t want to mandate happiness on you—toxic positivity is presumptuous, if not, well, toxic. But it is true that there are other New Years besides our year of 2026, a solar year devised by Julius Caesar but later updated by Pope Gregory VIII. The Jewish year of 5787 will start after sundown on Friday, September 11 on Rosh Hashanah. Depending on the sight- ing of the moon, June 17 is the presumed start of the Islamic year of 1448 in America. The start of the Chinese Year of the Horse will be celebrated on February 17, as will be the Vietnamese New Year. However, even in the United States, January 1 is only one of many annual beginnings. State and federal laws describe or mandate the setting of many other types of years such as fiscal years, tax years and public-school years. Common law understands the concept of the year in many ways, with most legal documents setting temporal terms in precise language. When they don’t, they create legal controversies that often end up in the courts. And even the U.S. Supreme Court has its own year which starts on the first Monday of October—but hasn’t always. Kentucky Years, Legally Defined In Kentucky, the general definitions stat- ute, KRS 446.010, defines a simple ref- erence to “year” as a calendar year, which it presumes we know starts on January 1. (That’s a reasonable assumption because KRS 2.110(1) listing public holidays, des- ignates the first day of January as “New Year’s Day.”) In addition to this comprehensive general definitions list, Chapter 446 of the KRS has a number of tools for interpret- ing Kentucky statutes, including rules of construction and guides for understanding the codification process. But that is not the only year in the state. KRS 177.820 defines the “fiscal year of the Commonwealth [as] commencing on the first day of July and ending on the next ensuing thirtieth day of June.” And, for corporate taxation under KRS 67.750, the “fiscal year” is defined as it is defined in the federal Internal Revenue Code, which “means an accounting period of 12 months ending on the last day of any month other than December.” IRC 7701(a)(24). Of course, while most people think of a year as being 12 months, the drafters of Kentucky’s current constitution were more expansive, creating a 24-month “biennium” that com- mences on July 1 each even-numbered year and ends on June 30 “in the ensuing even- numbered year.” KRS 446.010(53). The “even- numbered year” calendar unit is an artifact of the 1890-91 Kentucky Constitutional Convention’s attempt to confine the legislature to a 60-day session every even-numbered year. A 2004 amendment added a 30-day odd-year session, but the biennial budget is still passed in the even-numbered year. The legislative year begins on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January, according to the Kentucky Constitution, Section 36. Researchers into any statutory ambiguity as to what is meant by a year in a statute are best advised to consult Thomson Reuters’ much-cited treatise Statutes and Statutory Construction often referred to informally as “Sutherland’s Statutory Construction,” even though its author Jabez Sutherland has been resting in peace since 1902. Federal Fiscal Year Speaking of the federal government, it is generally accepted that the traditional fiscal year from July 1 to June 30 used by Kentucky and 47 other states, is in imitation of the fed- eral fiscal year adopted in 1842. Early on, Congress had operated on the idea that the fiscal year was a calendar year but because of the slow resolution of elections, difficult travel conditions, and the blazing hot D.C. summers, Congress was typically only in session from December to May. That meant PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE (Continued on next page) But it is true that there are other New Years besides our year of 2026, a solar year devised by Julius Caesar but later updated by Pope Gregory VIII. “
