Request By:
Honorable Sandra M. Varellas
Fayette County Judge Executive
Suite 300, Court Plaza
266 West Main Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have written concerning H.B. No. 378, enacted in the 1982 session. Section 4 of the bill amends Section 10 of S.B. 18 (1976 Extra Session, Ch. 20) by providing that "Sections 2 through 6 of this Act shall not apply in counties having an urban county form of government. " S.B. 18, Section 10, formerly read: "Sections 2 though 7 of this Act" etc. Section 7 of S.B. 18, which is now KRS 67.722, reads:
"The county judge/executive shall receive an annual expense allowance of three thousand six hundred dollars ($3,600) for performing his duties and fulfiling his responsibilities in the administration of the local county road program. Payment shall be made quarterly in the amount of nine hundred dollars ($900) per quarter, the first such payment to be made for the quarter ending March 31, 1978.
Thus Section 4 of H.B. 378 authorizes the $3600 annual expense allowance to be paid to the county judge executive in an urban county government, as well as in the other counties. It reads in full:
Section 10. Sections 2 through 6 [7] of this Act shall not apply in counties having an urban county form of government. In such counties, the duties of the county judge/executive shall be as prescribed by the comprehensive plan of such government and his salary shall be fixed by the legislative body of such government.
Since KRS 67.722 (the "expense allowance" ) is payable only in connection with the county judge executive's performing his duties and fulfilling his responsibilities in the administration of the local county road program, you ask whether the bill is unconstitutional?
See the advisory role of the fiscal court, including the county judge executive, in connection with the county road program dealt with in KRS 179.415.
The compensation under KRS 67.722 will be payable to you only in consideration of your executive or administrative work involving county roads pursuant to KRS 179.415. It must be simply public money paid for public service. Sections 3 and 171, Kentucky Constitution. However, as to the constitutionality of the application of KRS 67.722 to urban county government, in terms of §§ 3 and 171 of the Constitution, only the courts are equipped to weigh carefully the statutory role left to the county judge executive and the actual duties thus permitted and practiced in reality.