Request By:
Mr. Clay McKnight
Scott County Attorney
Courthouse
P.O. Box 582
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
A Senate amendment was attached to H.B. 718 in the 1978 Session. It reads:
"SECTION 7. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 134 IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS: Monies paid to the county attorney under KRS 132.350, KRS 134.340, KRS 134.400, KRS 134.500, KRS 134.540 and KRS 135.040 shall be used only for payment of county attorney office operating expenses. "
Your question relates to whether or not the "office operating expenses" must by necessity be directly related to the collection of delinquent taxes. In other words, you ask, can such commissions paid to the county attorney for tax collection be used for the general operating expenses of the county attorney. Our answer to your question is that the commissions or fees paid to the county attorney under those statutory sections may be used for the general operating expenses of the office of county attorney.
It may be noted that the term "office operating expenses" is not defined in the bill. Compare
George Wohrley, Inc. v. Commonwealth, Dept. of Rev., Ky., 495 S.W.2d 173 (1973), in which it was pointed out that when a statute defines words used therein, the courts look to the legislative definition rather than to the dictionary or common usage. But here, as we said, there is no legislative definition of the term. Actually, since there is nothing in the bill plainly indicating a contrary sense in which the language was employed, we are compelled to conclude that the usual and ordinary meaning of the words used should be attributed to them.
Green v. Moore, 281 Ky. 305, 135 S.W.2d 682 (1940) 683. It is our view that "county attorney office operating expenses" clearly refers to all actual and necessary expenses incident to the proper conduct of the total duties of the office of county attorney. See KRS 69.210 and KRS 15.725. Also see
Connors v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 277 Ky. 23, 125 S.W.2d 206 (1939) 209.
While it is true that Section 7 of H.B. 718 specifically mentions monies paid to the county attorney under certain statutes involving the collection of delinquent taxes, it must also be noted that the legislature created a separate section in H.B. 718, which clearly indicates that the idea of the county attorney's operating expenses were not intended to be restrictively and narrowly integrated only with the expenses inherent in tax collection work of the county attorney under the subject statutes. The legislature could have easily restricted the operating expenses to those expenses growing out of the county attorney's tax collection work under KRS Chapters 132, 134 and 135. But it obviously chose not to restrict such operating expenses. Therefore, we come inevitably to the conclusion that the common usage of language applies here, and thus these operating expenses may be considered to apply to the general operating expenses of the office of county attorney when considered in its statutory totality. See KRS 446.080(4).