Could a Kentucky county attorney use delinquent-tax account money for travel to association events?

Plain-English summary

A Todd County attorney asked whether his office could reimburse travel to board meetings and other events held on behalf of the Kentucky County Attorneys Association. The Attorney General said yes. KRS 134.545 restricted delinquent-tax collection money paid to county attorneys to office operating expenses, but did not define that phrase. The AG relied on Kentucky decisions distinguishing official expenses from predominantly personal ones and treated this association travel as an office expense.

The opinion also referred to guidelines prepared with the association and the Auditor of Public Accounts, and said regulations were being developed at the time. The signed official PDF refers to an attached copy of those guidelines, but the archive asset ends without the attachment. This page therefore does not state the guidelines' contents.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2005. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Could delinquent-tax account funds reimburse travel to county-attorney association board meetings? A: The AG said yes, treating travel on behalf of the Kentucky County Attorneys Association as a county attorney office operating expense under KRS 134.545.

Q: Why was the travel treated as an office expense?
A: The opinion drew on a distinction in Funk v. Milliken between reasonable, public-benefiting official expenses and predominantly personal expenses. That case had treated similar professional training and association costs as official.

Q: Did the statute define “office operating expenses”?
A: No. The AG said KRS 134.545 used the phrase without defining it and looked to older decisions and then-current guidelines for context.

Q: Are the guidelines mentioned in the opinion available in the linked PDF? A: No. The official archive PDF contains the signed opinion but ends without the attachment it says was included.

Background and statutory framework

KRS 134.545 said money paid to county attorneys for specified delinquent-tax work “shall be used only for payment of county attorney office operating expenses.” The opinion cited Funk v. Milliken for the distinction between official and personal costs and concluded that the specified association travel was reimbursable. It stated that the office was preparing regulations and that attorneys could rely on the attached guidelines until finalization, but those guidelines are absent from the official PDF asset.

Citations and references

Statute: KRS 134.545.

Case: Funk v. Milliken, 317 S.W.2d 499 (Ky. 1958).

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_c29d4047-4109-4f69-b7b9-a77c51ef3cb4/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_c29d4047-4109-4f69-b7b9-a77c51ef3cb4

Original opinion text

OAG 05-002
January 7, 2005
Subject:

County Attorney Office Operating Expenses

Requested by:

Hon. Harold “Mac” Johns, Todd County Attorney and
President, Kentucky County Attorneys’ Association

Written by:

Janet M. Graham, Assistant Deputy Attorney General

Syllabus:

A county attorney may use proceeds from the county
attorney’s delinquent real estate tax collection account to pay for travel to board meetings and other events sponsored by the Kentucky County Attorneys’ Association because these constitute county attorney office operating expenses pursuant to KRS 134.545.

Statutes construed:

KRS 134.545.

Opinion of the Attorney General
On October 18, 2004, Hon. Harold “Mac” Johns, President of the
Kentucky County Attorneys’ Association (“KCAA”), submitted an opinion
request to the Attorney General as to whether he could be reimbursed
for “travel to board meetings and other events on behalf of the KCAA.”
The answer to this question is “yes” as further outlined below.
County attorneys receive compensation for various duties that
are delineated in Kentucky statutes. One of these duties is assisting
the Revenue Cabinet in collecting delinquent property taxes. When the
county attorney renders this assistance, he or she is entitled to com-

OAG 05-002
Page 2

pensation based upon the specific service performed.
132.250, 134.340, 134.400, 134.540 and 135.040.

See KRS

KRS 134.545, enacted in 1978, provides that “Moneys paid to
the county attorney under KRS 132.350, 134.340, 134.400, 134.500,
134.540 and 135.040 shall be used only for payment of county attorney office operating expenses.” However, the phrase “county attorney office operating expenses” is not defined in the statute. Additionally, no cases appear to directly interpret this particular statute. However, prior to the enactment of this statute, cases did examine similar issues with respect to the prior statutory framework. In Funk v. Milliken, 317 S.W.2d 499 (Ky. 1958), an appeal of a declaratory judgment action, Kentucky’s highest court examined the issue of what constitutes a county attorney “personal expense” versus what constitutes a “necessary office expense.” In this case, the Court adopted the view that a county attorney could be reimbursed for expenses of his office that are “reasonable in amount, beneficial to the public, and not predominantly personal to the officer in the sense that by common understanding and practice they are considered to be personal expenses.” Id. at 506. The Court in Funk specifically examined expenses related to attending a state school for county attorneys, attending the annual convention of county attorneys and dues paid to a national association of county attorneys. The Court held that the expenses were “official” and not “personal” and that the county attorney was entitled to credit for these expenses. Id. at 508. See also Reeves v. Talbott, 289 Ky. 581, 159 S.W.2d 51 (holding that Commissioner of Revenue’s attendance at a national tax conference was a proper office expense); Louisville and Jefferson County Bd. of Health v. Steinfeld, 308 Ky. 824, 215 S.W.2d 1011 (holding that executive of municipal health board could properly be reimbursed for attendance at medical meeting). Because of the lack of a definition of “county attorney office operating expenses,” the Kentucky County Attorneys Association in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office and the Auditor of Public Accounts has promulgated a set of guidelines for county attorneys with respect to the proper use of the moneys collected pursuant to the above-referenced statutes and pursuant to KRS 514.040(5). A copy of these guidelines is attached. Based upon these guidelines, the Attorney General’s Office is currently promulgating regulations which should further delineate the appropriate parameters for the use of this money.

OAG 05-002
Page 3

Until these regulations are finalized, we believe that county attorneys
may rely upon the attached guidelines as generally accepted standards of use for moneys collected in their fee accounts. GREGORY D. STUMBO ATTORNEY GENERAL

Janet M. Graham
Asst. Deputy Attorney General
#412