Request By:
Mr. Carroll C. Fugate
Magistrate District #2
P.O. Box 83
Hazard, Kentucky 41701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You present questions relating to the county budget for fiscal year 1977-1978.
You ask whether the fiscal court must budget for the circuit court reporter and circuit judge. The fiscal court must, under KRS 28.460, fix a salary for the circuit court reporter at an annual rate not to exceed $6,000 payable out of the county treasury. Fiscal courts, pursuant to KRS 23.091, must continue to furnish until January 1, 1978, to circuit court derks and the circuit courts the same space and facilities and the same financial support as were furnished by fiscal courts prior to January 1, 1976. KRS 64.500, relating to the fiscal court's paying for expenses of circuit judges, was repealed by Acts of 1976, Ch. 83, § 19, effective March 29, 1976. The final answer to this question is that the fiscal court should appropriate funds for the court reporter's compensation and for the circuit judge's expenses [his salary is paid out of the state treasury] until January 1, 1978, at which time the state treasury appropriations should fund these items completely. See State Budget, 1976 Extraordinary Session, Chapter 27, Item 55 (E. Judiciary).
While § 120 of the Constitution, as amended, apparently mandates that, upon the effective date of the judicial amendment in 1975, "all compensation and necessary expenses of the Court of Justice shall be paid out of the state treasury" (Emphasis added), in order to facilitate the orderly transitional period prior to full state treasury financing for the court system, the fiscal court, in making its appropriations for the first half of fiscal 1977-78 for the circuit court reporter and judge [or other judicial officers named hereinafter], should send the appropriations to the Secretary of Finance who can effect a proper placing of the appropriations in the state treasury. In this way no violence will be done to § 120 of the Constitution.
You ask whether the fiscal court could spend county money to buy seed potatoes and fertilizer for old and disabled people to start gardening. Under an appropriate ordinance, the fiscal court could declare this to be a public project in the interest of the aged and infirm. The authority: KRS 67.083 [Home Rule] and 67.080.
You ask who will pay the compensation of the county attorney and district judge in 1978? Answer: The state. They will be paid out of the state treasury. Each county attorney will be paid out of the state treasury for his prosecutorial duties. See H.B. 17, Chapter 17, Section 14, 1976 Extraordinary Session. The county, for 1978, will have to pay the county attorney for civil work to be performed by him for the county. Office expenses incurred by the county attorney in performance of his duties as legal adviser to the county shall be paid by the fiscal court. Section 11, H.B. 17, 1976 Extraordinary Session. The district judge will be paid out of the state treasury. See H.B. 30, Chapter 27, 1976 Extraordinary Session, p. 240. See also H.B. 32, Chapter 28, Section 14, 1976 Extraordinary Session. The expenses for the county attorney's prosecutorial work and for the district court will be paid out of the state treasury in 1978.
Note that under H.B. 23, Chapter 22, Section 7, 1976 Extraordinary Session, the county must furnish reasonably available space for circuit and district courtrooms, chambers for the judges, space for court staff and circuit clerk's operations etc.
You ask whether the county can appropriate money for the commonwealth's attorney and secretary. This [expense allowance] is authorized under KRS 64.510(1)(c) and 23.091 until January 1, 1978.