202 S.W.2d 174 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1947
Affirming.
Appellant, Carl Weber, is the Sheriff of Franklin County, which contains a population of less than 75,000. He was elected at the general election in November, 1945, and assumed the duties of his office on January 6, 1946. One of his duties is to collect all school taxes payable in the County, and at the time of his induction into office his fee for such collections was one per centum of the amount collected. KRS
Section 161 of the Constitution provides: "The compensation of any city, county, town or municipal officer shall not be changed after his election or appointment, or during his term of office; nor shall the term of any such officer be extended beyond the period for which he may have been elected or appointed."
Section 246 of the Constitution reads: "No public officer, except the Governor, shall receive more than five thousand dollars per annum, as compensation for official services, independent of the compensation of legally authorized deputies and assistants, which shall be fixed and provided for by law. The General Assembly shall provide for the enforcement of this section by suitable penalties, one of which shall be forfeiture of office by any person violating its provisions."
The Sheriff contends that, since he is limited by Section 246, supra, to $5,000 per year as compensation for himself, the fees he collects in excess of $5,000 over and above the necessary office expense and deputy hire cannot be construed as compensation to him, and since it is conceded that his fees will be far in excess of the constitutional limitation, the increase in commissions provided by the 1946 Legislature will not increase his compensation, therefore the Act is operative as to Franklin County during the entire term of his office. It is further contended that after his term of office as Sheriff expires, if he becomes Special Tax Collector, he will not be an officer or have any term of office within the meaning of Section 161 of the Constitution, hence additional compensation to him as Special Tax Collector will not be inhibited by Section 246 of the Constitution. It is contended by the County Superintendent and the School Board that the fees and commissions of the Sheriff constitute his compensation, the schedule for which may not be increased or decreased during his term of office, although he will be required to pay all sums in excess of $5,000 over and above his office expenses and deputy hire into the County Treasury, and that since his compensation as Sheriff cannot be increased during his term of office, neither can his compensation as Tax Collector be so increased. *684
The question in respect to the increase in compensation for such period of time as the Sheriff shall act as Special Tax Collector after his term as Sheriff shall have expired can be disposed of with few words. In so far as pertinent to this question, KRS
It is obvious that this provision in the Statute, supra, places the Special Tax Collector in the same category as the Sheriff during his term of office; and if he is not permitted as Sheriff to collect in excess of one per centum of the taxes, he may not collect in excess of that amount as Tax Collector.
Thus, the two questions are resolved into one, and that question must be determined upon the proper construction to be given to the word "compensation" in its application to fee and commission collecting officers of the Commonwealth. The Legislature of 1920 adopted the Act which was in effect when appellant was inducted into office, and reduced the commission of the Sheriff for collecting school taxes from four per centum to one per centum of such collections. Acts 1920, c. 36. After the passage of the 1920 Act a suit was instituted to test its applicability to Jefferson County, whose population is more than 75,000 and whose Sheriff and his deputies receive fixed salaries, and such salaries together with the expenses of the Sheriff's office are paid out of the State Treasury. It was held in that case that the fees and commissions collected by the Sheriff did not constitute compensation, because the amount of such fees and collections in no manner regulated the compensation which was fixed by law. In arriving at this conclusion, the Court said: "The (1920) act, however, is a general one, and regulates the commission to be received by the sheriff for collecting the county school tax in every county of the commonwealth, and, while it may not have application to thesheriffs of counties containing less than 75,000 inhabitantsfor the years 1920 and 1921, because enacted during their termsof office, and would have the effect of changing theircompensation for official services after their respectiveelections, as they do not receive salaries, such is no reason why it *685 should not take immediate effect in counties of 75,000 population or more where the sheriffs receive salaries which are not affected by the taking effect of the act, and where no constitutional inhibition exists to its effect. The only reasonfor the act not applying to every sheriff in the state for theyears 1920 and 1921 is not that it is a special or local act,but because of the constitutional inhibition that the salary orcompensation of a public officer shall not be changed after hiselection and during his term of office." (Our emphasis.)
Ross v. Board of Education,
The judgment is affirmed.