Request By:
Mr. William D. Stephens
Supervisor
County Fee Systems
Executive Department for
Finance and Administration
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In counties having a population of 75,000 or more, certain named constitutional officers, their deputies and office expenses, must be paid out of the state treasury. Section 106, Kentucky Constitution. This includes court clerks, sheriffs and jailers. This means that such officers must turn all their fees into the state treasury.
The payment of the salary of each officer and his deputies and office expenses shall be made through the Department of Finance out of the seventy-five percent (75%) of the total amount paid into the state treasury by each officer concerned.
You enclose a Daviess Fiscal Court order allowing for necessary office expenses of the sheriff of that county. In such counties the fiscal court must enter such an order not later than January 15 of each year, which they did for 1980. KRS 64.345(2).
Question No. 1:
"May we process an expenditure against a particular budget category if in doing so, the total expenditures charged to that budget category will exceed the budget in that category?"
The statute requires only a breakdown as to the officer's salary, deputy salaries, and office expenses. It is sufficient to establish the "75% account", out of which will be paid the salary of the sheriff, his deputies and office expenses. Where the fiscal court sets up a maximum of $5,000 for "equipment", and the sheriff sends an invoice for $6,000, you can only honor the invoice up to $5,000, until and unless the fiscal court by a subsequent order raises the limit to $6,000, at which time you can honor the additional $1,000. The point is that you have to stick to the proper breakdown maximums set up by fiscal court in its initial order and any subsequent orders of modification. KRS 64.345(2).
Question No. 2:
"Do we need a detailed breakdown of the precise equipment that the court is authorizing us to pay for in behalf of the official involved?"
The invoices should document the equipment purchased. However, the breakdown "equipment" under the order of fiscal court may simply be interpreted as any office equipment that is actually necessary to operate the sheriff's office. Coleman v. Mulligan, 234 Ky. 691, 28 S.W.2d 980 (1930).