Request By:
Mr. Dale Burchett
Barren County Judge/Executive
Courthouse
Glasgow, Kentucky 42141
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question concerns the expense allowance paid to magistrates under KRS 64.258 (up to $100 to each magistrate).
The question reads:
"If the magistrates are paid this expense allowance, to what extent may they be reimbursed for what would otherwise be expenses reimbursable by the Barren County Fiscal Court, (i.e. stationery and other supplies, travel within the county, travel outside the county and otherwise reimbursable expenses)?"
KRS 64.258(1) states in part that the fiscal court may pay to each justice of the peace a sum not to exceed $100 per month "in order to assist with the expenses of his office." (Emphasis added).
We are of the opinion that the justices of the peace serving on fiscal court may be reimbursed by the county for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performing of their statutory duties, provided that they document the fact, if it is a fact, that the claimed expenses exceed the $100 per month allowance. Thus any excess of the $100 per month by way of accrued expenses may be so reimbursed. See