Request By:
Honorable E. B. Beatty
Lee County Attorney
Beattyville, Kentucky 41311
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Circuit Clerk has presented to the Fiscal Court a bill for postage stamps used in her office. Question No. 1:
"Is the Fiscal Court liable for this expenditure as payable by the County?"
The Fiscal Court, through the county treasury, is responsible for stamps used as an official expense of that office. See Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). The stamps can also be paid out of the fees of the office if the expenditure is properly documented as required by Funk, above. Such current operating expenses will not be funded by the state, through the Court of Justice, until January 2, 1978. See H.B. 20, Extraordinary Session of 1976, Section 8. The Circuit Clerks in counties having a population of 75,000 or more were omitted from the financing scheme of KRS 64.350 by the amendment of that section by House Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 15, Section 34. However, that section becomes effective on January 2, 1978.