Request By:
Mr. Mike Shields
Bath County Treasurer
Box 761
Owingsville, Kentucky 40360
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You are inquiring as to the effect of S.B. 172 (1980 session) on your position as county treasurer. Your current term expires as of April 30, 1981. You ask when would the next appointment be?
S.B. 172 was amended to provide that the act becomes effective April 1, 1982. The county treasurer in office at that time shall retain his office until his successor is chosen and qualified pursuant to Section 1.
Under Section 1, KRS 68.010 is amended to provide that the fiscal court in each county, at its regular June term every two (2) years, shall appoint a county treasurer for a term of two (2) years.
Since the new term sequence of two (2) years will not go into effect until April 1, 1982, the next appointment under KRS 68.010, as it is presently drawn, will be at the regular April term of fiscal court in 1981 for a term of four years.
The next question is whether or not the four year term, which will begin April 1981, must extend to the full four years under the currently effective statute [KRS 68.010]. In other words, can the four year term in April of 1982 [effective date S.B. 172] be cut short and superseded by the new two (2) year term sequence?
The courts recognize that the General Assembly has the power to abolish an office of its own creation during the term of the incumbent. Cawood v. Hensley, Ky., 247 S.W.2d 27 (1952). Thus, it follows that the General Assembly can by legislation shorten, in effect, the term of the incumbent county treasurer. Of course the General Assembly cannot reduce the term of an office when it is fixed by the Constitution. But here the office of county treasurer was created by the legislature and the term was fixed by the legislature in KRS 68.010. Section 107 of the Constitution merely fixes the maximum term (4 years) for nonconstitutional county officers.
The answer to the second question is that the General Assembly may, by the application of its legislation, cut short the four year term of the county treasurer, as provided in the current statute, such that under S.B. 172 [effective April 1, 1982] the fiscal court in all counties in Kentucky must appoint a county treasurer at its regular June term of 1982 for a two (2) year term. Thus the county treasurer in office as of April 1, 1982, will retain his office until his successor is chosen and qualified. Thereafter, the two (2) year term sequence will continue to apply unless and until the statute is amended or repealed. Under S.B. 172 the county treasurer must take office under the new term on July 1st immediately following his appointment.