Request By:
Ms. Pat Arnold
Prosecutors Advisory Council
Office of the Attorney General
909 Leawood Drive
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Nathan Goldman, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter you ask that we reconsider OAG 89-15 as it concerns the maximum compensation for county attorneys.
In that opinion we stated that the maximum compensation for county attorneys for their state and local duties combined was $ 59,263.
KRS 15.765(3) requires that the $ 12,000 maximum compensation of county attorneys as set out in the Constitution be equated with the purchasing power of the dollar as decided in Matthews v. Allen, Ky., 360 S.W.2d 135 (1962).
The county attorney performs two separate functions. He is a state criminal prosecutor pursuant to KRS 15.725 and the civil advisor for the county pursuant to KRS 69.210. He is paid by the state for his prosecutorial duties pursuant to KRS 15.765(1). He is paid by the county for those duties he performs for the county.
The 1988 Budget Bill contains the following language:
"Notwithstanding the provisions of KRS . . . 15.765 . . ., the salaries of the various state officials for the fiscal year 1989 shall be increased by two percent (2%) over fiscal year 1988."
As a criminal prosecutor, the county attorney acts as a state official. However, as the county's civil advisor he is acting as a county official. OAG 80-341.
The maximum compensation which the county attorney may receive for his criminal prosecutorial duties was correctly computed in OAG 89-15 as $ 35,502 which represents a 2% increase over the 1988 compensation for his prosecutorial duties. This was due to the 1988 Budget Bill. However, in OAG 89-15 we misinterpreted the language of the Budget Bill and incorrectly applied it to the county attorney's combined maximum compensation. That combined maximum compensation should have been computed pursuant to the formula set out in KRS 15.765(3). The limitation in the 1988 Budget Bill, in our opinion, only applies to the county attorney's maximum compensation for his state prosecutorial duties. It does not apply to his county duties.
Consequently, the correct computation for the maximum possible compensation for the county attorney for 1989 for his combined state and county duties is as follows:
360.9 (current CPI in terms of 1949) / 71.4 = X / $ 12,000
71.4X = 360.9 x $ 12,000
71.4X = $ 4,330,800
X = $ 60,655 (rounded)
The maximum possible compensation for the county attorney for 1989 pursuant to KRS 15.765(3) is $ 60,655.