Request By:
Mr. Edward G. May
Attorney at Law
Wilmot Building
Lancaster Street
Stanford, Kentucky 40484
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You will take office on January 2, 1978, as the newly elected County Attorney of Lincoln County. The fiscal court has not established a salary for your office. You ask if the fiscal court can establish the salary now without violating § 161 of the Kentucky Constitution. "Yes".
Under KRS 64.530(1), the fiscal court is required to fix a salary for the county attorney as civil adviser to the fiscal court. The statutes name no specific sum. Your salary can be set anytime prior to your taking office in January, 1978. Even if the fiscal court had already set a salary, they could change it prior to your taking office. Sections 161 and 235 of the Kentucky Constitution prohibit the changing of the compensation of a county officer "during his term", not before his term. (Emphasis added). If your salary for the new term in 1978 has never been set and you take office in January without its being set, it can be set at the beginning of the term. Now, once your salary has been set, it cannot during the term be changed, except for any statutory adjustment under the rubber dollar principle.
The constitutional sections do not cover expense allowances. Your office expenses as county attorney will have to be paid by fiscal court under an appropriate budget item. It is not a lump sum arrangement. You will have to document your necessary office expenses to fiscal court as they accrue. See KRS 15.750(4). The constitution does not permit the "reduction" of compensation during term and does not permit an "increase" in compensation during term unless it is an adjustment under the rubber dollar principle and the statutory maximum has not been attained.