Request By:
Mr. Phillip G. Abshier
Secretary
Kentucky Quarter Horse and
Appaloosa Commission
One Executive Boulevard
Lower Level 12
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General
You have written on behalf of the Kentucky Quarter Horse and Appaloosa Commission concerning KRS 230.413(4) which provides:
"The members of the commission shall receive per diem compensation to be established by the secretary of the executive department for finance and administration. This compensation shall not exceed fifty dollars ($50.00) per day."
KRS 230.413(4) was effective as of June 17, 1978. However, the Secretary for the Department of Finance did not establish the rate of the per diem compensation until April 3, 1980. You want to know whether Commission members are to receive the per diem compensation for meetings attended since June 17, 1978 or for those meetings attended since April 3, 1980.
The Commission members are to receive the per diem for all meetings attended on or after June 17, 1978. That is the effective date of the act. The actions of the Secretary of the Department of Finance are necessary to implement subsection (4) only to the extent of determining and establishing the amount of the per diem compensation. Now that that rate has been established the Commissioners shall, upon the presentation of proper documentation of attendance and subject to the availability of funds for the payment thereof, be compensated at the $50 per day rate for each day upon which he or she has attended a commission meeting since June 17, 1978.