Request By:
Mr. Bill Stephens
Supervisor
County Fee Systems
Executive Department for
Finance and Administration
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Recently a commonwealth's attorney submitted a travel voucher for reimbursement of expenses incurred in the performance of his official duties. This is a new practice approved by the Prosecutors Advisory Council.
Lump sum expense allowances are provided the commonwealth's attorneys and the county attorneys.
KRS 15.755(6) reads:
"(6) Each commonwealth's attorney of the state shall be paid each month the sum of five hundred dollars ($500), which sum is declared to be the equivalent of the minimum sum that each commonwealth's attorney will expend each month in the performance of his official duties directed to be performed for the Commonwealth. The aforementioned sum shall be paid out of the state treasury. "
KRS 15.765(2) provides:
"(2) Each county attorney shall be paid each month the sum of two hundred fifty dollars ($250), which sum is declared to be the equivalent of the minimum sum that each county attorney will expend each month in the performance of his official duties directed to be performed for the Commonwealth. The aforementioned sum shall be paid out of the state treasury. "
However, KRS 15.750(2) and (3) provide that the commonwealth's attorneys and county attorneys, respectively, shall be paid by the state for their office expenses incurred in performing their prosecutorial duties for the state.
Your question is whether the statutes permit the Department of Finance to pay the prosecutors travel expenses, both while traveling within their districts and outside their districts?
KRS 15.755(6), 15.765(2), and 15.750(2) and (3) were all first created in H.B. 17 [Ch. 17, 1976 Ex. Sess., Sections 12, 14, and 11, respectively]. The title of the bill was: "An Act relating to prosecuting attorneys."
At this point we note two sets of statutory provisions relating to the expenses of the commonwealth's attorneys and the county attorneys. It must be noted that all of the expense provisions were enacted in the same bill. We must assume that the legislature had a meaningful purpose in providing these two sets of expense allowances. If these two sets cannot be distinguished on some reasonable ground, then they would be in duplication, and thus nominal expense money could be commuted into compensation. The court, in
County Board of Education v. Fiscal Court, 221 Ky. 106, 298 S.W. 185 (1927) 187, observed that "It will not be presumed that the legislature did a vain or foolish thing."
It is our opinion, under the above judicial assumption, that KRS 15.750(2) and (3) was designed to provide reimbursement to the prosecutors for office expenses incurred in performing their prosecutorial functions. Other parts of that statute relate to the budget of each commonwealth's attorney and county attorney in connection with the unified prosecutorial system. The whole statute must be read as a whole in order to arrive at the central purpose of the statute.
Button v. Hikes, 296 Ky. 163, 176 S.W.2d 112 (1944). However, formal accountability is necessary by way of documentation as required by the Department of Finance. See the new state travel regulation, 200 KAR, Chapter 2, relating to travel on official state business. Travel expenses relating to their prosecutorial function are reimbursable under KRS 15.750, regardless of whether the travel is within their districts or outside their districts. There is no distinction to be made in that regard.
Under this analysis the $500 and $250 monthly expense allowances, as contained in KRS 15.755(6) and 15.765(2), relate necessarily to residual civil functions performed for the state and which do not involve criminal prosecutions. These allowances are not compensation and require no formal accountability.
It is our opinion that KRS 15.755(6) and 15.765(2) would be upheld by the courts as a lump sum expense allowance [relating to civil duties performed for the state]. See