Request By:
Mr. Sam W. Arnold, III
Harrison County Attorney
16 East Pike Street
P.O. Box 126
Cynthiana, Kentucky 41031
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
On April 22, 1977, the Harrison County Fiscal Court adopted the following order: "That the County Attorney's salary be set at $4,000 annually beginning January 1, 1978 through December 31, 1981."
You indicate that the $4,000, which would be paid by the fiscal court for your civil duties relating to Harrison County, added to the amount paid to you by the Commonwealth for your prosecutorial duties is far less in 1978 than the statutory rubber dollar maximum which happens to be $31,272.
In the light of Section 161 of the Kentucky Constitution, you raise the question as to whether or not the county attorney's salary for his general civil work for the county can be increased beyond the rubber can be increased beyond the rubber dollar adjustment for extraordinary services rendered.
Section 161 of the Kentucky Constitution prohibits a change in the compensation of a county officer after his election or appointment, or during his term of office. However, in the case of Commonwealth v. Hesch, Ky., 395 S.W.2d 362 (1965), the court reiterated the doctrine of the "rubber dollar" which simply means a periodic adjustment, in terms of the Consumer Price Index, of the compensation of constitutional officers. Under this doctrine any adjustment in salary to accomodate the application of the rubber dollar principle is not construed by the courts to be a change in compensation. Instead of a change, an increase in compensation to reflect the changing Consumer Price Index is merely an "adjustment" of the purchasing power of the constitutional officer's dollar in terms of the 1949 dollar, the year that Section 246 was amended.
Now suppose that you are paid by the state in 1978 for your prosecutorial duties the maximum sum permissible under KRS 15.765, which is the amount of $16,76.80 per year, then the fiscal court can pay you for year civil services any amount not to exceed $14,503.20 per year. The fiscal court at any time can increase your salary for your civil county duties, if they have not exhausted their salary fixing power. But as we said above they cannot, in fixing your salary, exceed the sum of $14,503.20 for 1978. See Dennis v. Rich, Ky., 434 S.W.2d 632 (1968). It is significant to understand that any adjustment in your present $4,000 salary from the county upward is strictly within the application of the rubber dollar principle.