Request By:
Mr. A. G. Miller
Todd County Court Clerk
P.O. Box 518
Elkton, Kentucky 42220
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General
You have written to ask whether the County should pay unemployment insurance contributions for deputies or assistants of the various fee officers, such as the sheriff, the jailer and the county clerk, in small counties where the respective offices do not generate excess fees from which the contributions could be paid.
At one time a county could elect whether it would participate in and contribute to unemployment insurance on behalf of its employees. That has changed (overruling OAG 63-145). Counties are now required to make contributions. KRS 341.050(1)(d); 341.070(3); 341.250. In reading KRS 341.060, 341.069 and 341.070 together, it is clear that the county government and its instrumentalities is the "employing unit" or the "subject employer". As such, it is the county government which is ultimately liable to pay the unemployment insurance contributions for all non-elective employees who perform services for the benefit of the county.
However, because primary responsibility for the payment of necessary office expenses and the salaries of deputies or assistants rests upon the respective fee officers the deputies or assistants work for (in the sense that the salaries and necessary office expenses are paid from the fees earned by the offices of the sheriff, the jailer and the county) the fees earned by those offices may be used to pay the contributions. KRS 64.345; 64.540. In other words, it would be appropriate to assess the amount of the contributions for a deputy sheriff against the fees earned by the sheriff's office, the amount of the contributions for a deputy jailer against the fees earned by the jailer's office, etc., so long as there are sufficient fees to cover the amount of the contributions.
However, where the offices do not generate sufficient fees to cover the amount of the contributions, then the county must pay the contributions, for it is the entity which is ultimately liable under KRS Chapter 341. In no case is the amount of the contribution to be deducted from the remuneration received by the employee, deputy or assistant. KRS 341.260; 341.277(2)(c).