Request By:
Mr. Wm. Murphy Howard
Harlan County Attorney
Courthouse
Harlan, Kentucky 40831
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You ask what can a magistrate, serving on fiscal court, draw as salary starting January 1, 1978.
As of January 2, 1978, justices of the peace will have no judicial duties. Thus they cannot be paid for trying cases, since they will not be trying cases. KRS 64.255 stands repealed as of January 2, 1978 (Acts of 1976, Ex. Sess., Ch. 14, § 491).
An expense account of up to $100 per month may be paid to the justices serving on fiscal court. All the justices of the peace must be paid the expense sum if it is paid at all. KRS 64.258.
As concerns the proposed salary of $500 per month for the magistrates' working on fiscal court, KRS 64.530(6) establishes a ceiling of $260 per month. However, the justice of the peace was added to the list of county officials placed in the annual rubber dollar adjustment statute, KRS 64.527. See S.B. 15, Ch. 14, § 38, 1976 Extraordinary Session. But he was left out of KRS 64.527, as amended by H.B. 17, Ch. 17, § 19, 1976 Extraordinary Session. When the two bills are read together, the justice of the peace would probably be held by the courts to be retained in the statute. In addition, KRS 67.705(4) provides that, effective January 2, 1978, the justice of the peace on fiscal court shall be paid no less than the total annual compensation received by that official during calendar year 1976. The troublesome factor, as we pointed out in OAG 77-323, copy enclosed, is that in most counties the work of the magistrate is a part time job. The courts might overturn any such salary deemed to be unreasonable under the total circumstances.
As relates to the $500 salary you mention, it would be up to the courts to determine the reasonableness of the salary under all circumstances and under this ambiguous statutory situation. See OAG 77-235, copy enclosed, of related interest.