Request By:
Mr. David H. Bland, Ed.
Executive Director
Kentucky Jailers Association
Route 2
McCowans Ferry Road
Versailles, Kentucky 40383
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your letter reads in part:
"KRS 441.008 provides for the development of a jail budget by both the Jailer and Fiscal Court. Section (2) also states that the disbursement of jail operating funds is at the direction of the jailer. Of course included in the jail budget are the funds to pay staff salaries as well as the jailer's salary. It has been my understanding that:
1) When the Fiscal Court approves specific line item amounts for staff salaries as well as the jailer's salary they were in effect setting their respective salaries.
2) Funds can not be removed from or transferred within the jail budget without the jailer's authorization."
Your questions read:
"1) Must a Fiscal Court by separate action establish the staff and Jailer's salaries or is the adoption of the Jail budget tantamount to setting their salaries?
2) If the Jailer requests a salary increase for one or more of his staff during the budget year, is the transfer of funds to the salary line item by the Fiscal Court and Jailer sufficient action for establishing a salary or is a separate action required of the Fiscal Court?
3) Once the Jailer's salary is established by the budget appropriation can his salary be reduced?"
In response to question no. 1, it is our opinion that the adoption of the jail budget, as a part of the county budget, is not tantamount to setting the salaries of the jailer and his deputies. Salary setting requires a separate action on the part of the fiscal court. See KRS 441.008 and 441.009.
A budget is primarily "a balance sheet or statement of estimated receipts and expenditures. " Black's Law Dictionary (4th ed.) p. 243. "Anticipated revenue" of a school board was characterized as its "budgeted revenue."
Arrowood v. Board of Education, etc., 269 Ky. 464, 107 S.W.2d 324 (1937). The term "budget" has been defined as a "balance sheet of estimated receipts and expenditures. " 12 C.J.S., Budget, p. 717, and
Appalachian Electric Power Co. v. City of Huntington, W.Va., 177 S.E. 431, 433.
Pursuant to §§ 157 and 158 of the Kentucky Constitution, a county is required to adopt, budget-wise, the pay-as-you-go plan and not to incur obligations in excess of its current revenues.
Payne v. Covington, 276 Ky. 380, 123 S.W.2d 1045 (1938). The county budget, under the uniform county budget system, must provide for all the funds to be expended by the county from current revenue for each fiscal year. See KRS 68.220, 68.240, 68.260 and 68.300.
The actual authorizing of specific expenditures such as paying of salaries for the jailer and his deputies, though within budget levels, requires a distinct and separate action on the part of the fiscal court. See KRS 64.530 and 441.009.
In answer to question no. 2, it is our opinion that salary adjustment for the jailer's deputies requires a distinct and separate action of the fiscal court. See KRS 64.530(4). The mere transfer of funds to the salary line item of the jail budget by the fiscal court (only the fiscal court has authority to transfer funds under KRS 68.290), under KRS 68.290 would not be tantamount to salary adjustment.
Concerning question no. 3, as to whether or not the jailer's salary, on being "established by the budget appropriation, " can be reduced, it is an improperly stated question. The jailer's salary is not "established by the budget, " as we said above. The budget is merely an estimate of what may be spent. However, salary fixation requires a separate and specific action of the fiscal court, by way of an order, pursuant to KRS 64.530 and 441.009.
It is our opinion that once the jailer's salary is properly set under KRS 64.530, 64.527, and 441.009, it cannot be reduced, since that would be a "change in compensation," which is prohibited by §§ 161 and 235 of the Kentucky Constitution. Upward adjustment during the term of a jailer's salary, not to exceed the rubber dollar level, is not a change in compensation. See § 246,