Request By:
Mr. C. Hunter Daugherty
Attorney at Law
201 West Maple Street
Nicholasville, Kentucky 40356
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charbles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In April of 1984, you were appointed by Judge Robert Jackson as Master Commissioner of Jessamine County, Kentucky, and you are presently serving in that capacity. Martha Belwood, of the Finance Cabinet, told you that, as state employes, master commissioners are entitled to be treated as employes for purposes of social security deductions. That is correct. See KRS 61.420(3). Ms. Belwood has informed us that master commissioners are under the social security program. See the landmark case of Shamburger v. Commonwealth, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 636 (1951), which specifically held that master commissioners qualified for the social security coverage, even though they are paid by fees. Pursuant to KRS 31A.010(4), you are compensated by fees as provided by rule of the Supreme Court of Kentucky. See CR 53.07 through CR 53.09. Also see Administrative Procedures of the Court of Justice, Part IV, Fees of Commissioners of the Circuit Court.
You are specially interested in our determining whether or not you, as a master commissioner, are entitled to group health insurance coverage, group life insurance coverage, and retirement coverage.
In connection with life insurance, KRS 18A.205(2), in defining a "state employe", provides that a state employe, for purposes of the life insurance program, is a person regularly employed by any department or branch of state government, and who is also a contributing member of any one of the retirement systems administered by the state. We were informed by the Administrative Office of the Courts that the master commissioners generally are not contributing members of any of the state administered retirement Thus such noncontributing (retirement) master commissioners do not qualify for the life insurance program outlined in KRS 18A.205.
Next, you mention group health insurance coverage. Such coverage for state employes is treated in KRS 18A.225. The term "state employe" is sufficiently broad enough to embrace master commissioners. However, subsection (1)(b) requires that the state employe qualifying for group health insurance must be a contributing member to any one of the retirement systems administered by the state. Master commissioners who are not contributing to one of the state administered retirement systems do not qualify for state group health insurance, pursuant to KRS 18A.225.
As relates to the state retirement system, KRS 61.510(5) defines "employe" as including every regular full-time appointed or elected officer or employe of a state department. The term does not include part-time workers. Under KRS 61.510(21)(d), "regular full-time positions", as used in subsection (5), above, does not include part-time positions which are positions which may be permanent in duration, but which require less than an annual or fiscal year average of one hundred (100) hours of work per month in the performance of duty.
CONCLUSIONS
(1) At present, if a master commissioner is not a contributing member of the state retirement system, he does not qualify for state group health insurance and does not qualify for state life insurance. KRS 18A.205 and 18A.225.
(2) If a master commissioner is a contirbuting member of the state retirement system, he would then qualify for the state group health insurance, provided that he is in a group of persons (group of master commissioners), pursuant to KRS 304. 18-020. Such group health insurance must cover groups of persons. See KRS 18A.225.
(3) If a master commissioner is a contributing member of the state retirement system, he would then qualify for the state life insurance program, provided he satisfies KRS 18A. 205, i.e., he would have to be in a class of state employes (master commissioners). Only the courts could resolve the question as to how many master commissioners would be required for group health insurance and for group life insurance. KRS 61.520 requires an executive order of the governor where departmental participation in the retirement is sought.
(4) No master commissioner can become a contributing member of the Kentucky Employes Retirement System unless he works for the minimal one hundred (100) hours per month for an annual or fiscal year average in the performance of duty. KRS 61.510(5) and (21)(d). That requirement has resulted in retirement coverage for only eleven master commissioners, according to the Kentucky Retirement System.