05/27/2026
Taken from the Kentucky Association of Counties - KACo website: What Counties Do.
Counties serve as the primary level of local government, with authority derived from the Kentucky Constitution and laws enacted by the Kentucky General Assembly.
All Kentuckians live in a county. As an extension of state government, counties provide essential services to residents such as building and maintaining infrastructure, law enforcement, public safety, elections, judicial functions, recordkeeping and more.
The County Fiscal Court carries out legislative and executive functions for Kentucky county governments.
***Despite ‘court’ being in the name, a fiscal court is NOT a judicial body and DOES NOT hear criminal or civil cases. ***
The fiscal court is responsible for financial and administrative oversight of county government, ensuring taxpayer funding is effectively allocated, county infrastructure is maintained, and services are delivered citizens.
Major county functions:
Counties own and maintain roughly 40,000 road miles in Kentucky, accounting for half of all road miles in the state.
Counties own and maintain 5,051 bridges, which is 35% of all bridges in Kentucky.
Counties keep their communities safe by allocating funding for dispatch centers, public safety personnel, emergency management and jails.
Counties provide resources for parks, recreation, senior citizen centers and other quality-of-life facilities and programs.
Counties foster economic development through infrastructure investment, workforce development and business attraction/retention.
