Request By:
Mr. David R. Martin
County Judge Executive
P.O. Box 626
Morgantown, Kentucky 42261
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your county has a problem concerning the jail budget. As it now stands, you say that the fiscal court does not approve any monies the jailer will spend within his budget.
This question arises: Suppose that the jailer over spends his budget, is he personally responsible for the money he over spends or is the fiscal court responsible?
KRS 441.008 (H. B. 440, Ch. 385, 1982 session), effective June 15, 1982, reads:
"(1) KRS 64.345 and 64.350 notwithstanding, by July 1, 1982, and by May 1 of each year thereafter, the fiscal court in consultation with the jailer shall adopt an operating budget for the jail which shall provide for the expenditure of all state, county and other funds for jail operations.
"(2) The county treasurer shall disburse jail operating funds at the direction of the jailer, provided the expenditures are within authorized budget categories, and shall keep books of accounts of all receipts and disbursements and make such reports as are required by the state local finance officer."
Under the express language of KRS 441.008, the county treasurer is required to disburse jail operating funds at the direction of the jailer, provided the expenditures are within authorized budget categories. There is no statutory provision requiring the fiscal court to approve the jailer's expenditures before or after payment. Under this statute, where the jailer's expenditures are within authorized budget categories, the county treasurer must prepare the checks, sign them and see to it that the payees receive the checks. Thus, KRS 68.020(1), which requires the county treasurer to disburse county funds as authorized by fiscal court and to co-sign county checks with the county judge executive, does not apply.
The answer to your question is that the fiscal court is not responsible for any overspending of the jail funds, since it has no supervising or approving role. However, the county treasurer would be directly held responsible for any such overspending, since he is required, under KRS 68.020, to keep an accurate detailed account of all money received and disbursed by him for the county. In the ultimate sense, the expenditure of "jail budget" money out of the county treasury is the expenditure of county money. Further, under KRS 441.008, the county treasurer is required to keep books of accounts of all receipts and disbursements, as relates to the jail budget money, and make such reports as are required by the State Local Finance Officer.
If the county treasurer fully meets his statutory obligations in connection with the "jail budget" funds, no overspending should occur.
The jailer, of course, has a direct responsibility in seeing to it that he stays precisely within his budgeted funds. KRS 441.008 and 71.010 (jailer's bond).
Finally, KRS 68.300 provides that any appropriation made or claim allowed by fiscal court in excess of any budget fund, and any warrant or contract not within the budget appropriation, shall be void. That statute would apply to the "jail budget" part of the county budget. That statute also provides that the county treasurer shall be liable on his official bond for the amount of any county warrant wilfully or negligently signed or countersigned by him in excess of the budget fund out of which the warrant is payable.