Request By:
Mr. James T. Ahler
Executive Director
State Board of Accountancy
310 West Liberty
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You raise a question concerning travel regulations as they pertain to members of the Kentucky State Board of Accountancy. The question was first raised by the State Auditor.
KRS 325.230(2) provides that:
"Each member of the board shall be paid fifty dollars ($50) for each day spent in the discharge of his official duties and shall be reimbursed for his actual and necessary expenses therein incurred."
200 KRS 2:006E, relating to travel expenses, Section 1, General (1), provides, in part, as relates to affected agencies, that:
"Except as otherwise provided by law, this regulation shall apply to all departments, agencies, boards, and commissions, and institutions of the Executive Branch of State Government."
The specific question is whether or not the members of the State Board of Accountancy are bound by the travel regulations of the Department of Finance, as covered in 200 KAR 2:006E.
The naked question here is simply whether or not the State Board of Accountancy is a board of the Executive branch of state government. If it is, then obviously the subject travel regulations apply to your board.
KRS 325.230 relates to the creation of and membership in a "state board of accountancy." (Emphasis added). The board, of seven members, are all appointed by the governor. Further, the governor shall remove from the board any member whose permit to practice is not renewed or which has become void, revoked or suspended, and may, after hearing, remove any member of the board for neglect or other just cause.
Note that KRS 12.070 requires members of administrative boards to take the constitutional oath set forth in § 228 of the Constitution. That statute deals with qualifications of members of state administrative boards appointed by the governor. Subsection (2) provides for reimbursement for the board members' actual and necessary expenses.
See the general functions of the finance department at KRS 42.030, in connection with budgetary and fiscal control of state agencies. KRS 44.060 provides that when any member of a state board is authorized by law to and does incur, in the discharge of his official duties, any expense incident to traveling in his own motor vehicle, the amount allowed for such expense shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Finance Department, which sum shall include depreciation and investment charges incident to the operation of the motor vehicle. See KRS 45.180 relating to a system installed by the Finance Department in handling state agency expense account claims against the state treasury, including the issuance of travel regulations. KRS 45.300 deals with a uniform system of state accounts.
In connection with the above statutes, read together as a whole, in pari materia, and realizing the necessity for uniformity in state accounting, it is our opinion that the State Board of Accountancy of Kentucky is indeed a state agency in connection with the state agency travel regulations. It is imperative that your board members observe the detailed requirements of 200 KAR 2:006E in submitting travel and food claims against the state treasury. Statutes in pari materia (same subject) should be construed together and harmonized. Economy Optical Co. v. Kentucky Bd. of Optometric Examiners, Ky., 310 S.W.2d 783 (1958).
Thus the precise standards relating to food and travel reimbursement must be strictly followed by your board members. As a "state board" it is subject to the "state agency" travel regulations. We find no escape from the ordinary meaning of the statutes above cited. See Old Lewis Hunter Distillery Co. v. Kentucky Tax Commission, 302 Ky. 68, 193 S.W.2d 464 (1946).
The language in KRS 325.230(2), that the members of the board shall be reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses, was in no way designed to constitute an exception to the state's uniform system of accounting and as relates specifically to food and travel expenses. Careful scrutiny is given to any exception to a general statute. However, here we believe no exception to the general travel regulations and statutes cited above is involved. See Hargett v. Kentucky State Fair Board, 309 Ky. 132, 216 S.W.2d 912 (1949).