Pulaski squires' pay higher than in other counties

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus

Magistrates serving on Pul-aski Fiscal Court are paid far more than squires in several neighboring counties, according to a spot check by the Commonwealth Journal. A local magistrate’s base salary of $30,000 a year is, for example, four times higher that a squire’s pay in Boyle County.

Laurel County magistrates have the highest salaries found in the newspaper’s survey of area counties. Even there members of Laurel Fiscal Court make nearly $9,000 a year less than their counterparts in Pulaski County.

Compensation for magistrates who serve on Pulaski Fiscal Court has become a much-discussed issue since a crowd of 51 candidates, subject to the May 18 primary elections, has created a perception that a generous pay scale may be a major attraction.

Numerous Letters to the Editor and columns have been published in this newspaper. Readers have both supported and derided the amount paid to the squires for what obviously is a part-time job. Several magistrates hold full-time jobs in the private sector.

Concerns have been expressed that magistrates might exercise their constitutional right to a salary equal to the county judge-executive which is more than $80,000 annually. Magistrates’ and county judge-executives’ pay, both based on a state constitutional limit of $7,200 a year, has been ballooned by the court’s “rubber dollar” theory into today’s values. Magistrates set their own salaries but it must be done by the first Monday in May in the year of their election. In other words, magistrates set salaries for the next term.

In addition to a base annual salary of $30,000, each Pulaski County magistrate gets $300 a month, or $3,600 a year in undocumented expenses. The county also pays expenses for magistrates to attend sessions to qualify for a state-paid training incentive of up to $3,800 a year, and the county pays for magistrates’ health insurance.

Pulaski County Treasurer Arlene Young said the state incentive pay for each magistrate who takes training gets $870 a year the first year and the amount increases each year to a maximum of $3,800 during the fourth year in office. The training is provided by the Kentucky Association of Counties, magistrates and commissioners conferences and the Kentucky County Judge/Executive Association, among others. Expenses paid by the county for each training session average about $250 each trip for each magistrate, Young said.

Boyle County pays each of its six magistrates only $7,316 annually, including a recent 2.7 percent cost-of-living increase. Each Boyle County magistrate who completes a 40-hour annual training regimen is paid an additional $3,800 a year in state-incentive funds.

Like Pulaski County magistrates, squires in Boyle County meet twice a month, alternating between a day and night session. Pulaski Fiscal Court meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m.

The four magistrates in Casey County are each paid an annual salary of $13,320.52. They do not get an expense account. Casey County Fiscal Court meets the first and third Monday of each month.

Information about magistrates’ compensation from Judge-executive Bill Demrow’s office in Lincoln County was described as general, not exact. A spokeswoman said each of Lincoln County’s four squires are paid an annual salary of about $11,000 and an expense account of $300 a month, or $3,600 annually. Lincoln Fiscal Court meets each second and fourth Tuesday.

Laurel County has six magisterial districts and each magistrate is paid $21,389.76 in base salary plus $300 a month, or $3,600 a year in expenses. Laurel Fiscal Court has one regular meeting a month, but a spokeswoman in Judge-executive Lawrence Kuhl’s office said the magistrates have several special meetings and committee sessions.

Wayne County Fiscal Court also has one regular meeting each month. They too, according to a spokeswoman, have several special sessions. For this, each of the four magistrates in Wayne County is paid an annual salary of $15,425.46 plus $300 a month, or $3,600 a year in expenses.

Each of the four magistrates in McCreary County is paid an annual salary of $13,372.25 plus $300 a month, or $3,600 a year in expenses. McCreary County Fiscal Court meets on the second Tuesday of each month, alternating between a day and night meeting.

McCreary County, with a population of 17,080, is unique among Kentucky's counties in that it is the only county with no incorporated city. In other words, the McCreary County Fiscal Court is the governing body for the whole county. While no incorporated cities exist within the county, there are a number of communities including the county seat, Whitley City, as well as Pine Knot, Stearns and Marshes Siding.

Information about training incentive pay, if any, was not available from several counties contacted in the survey.

In fairness, it must be noted that current salaries paid to Pulaski County magistrates are legal. It was set by the first Monday in May in the year of their election four years ago. The squires doubled their pay after reducing the number of magisterial districts from seven to five.

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