to actual disbursements, what it deems to be the fair and reasonable value of the services rendered in the enforcement thereof without inquiring whether the performance of such service resulted in any actual expense to the recording officer. Seemingly, in counties other than those in which a subordinate is designated to perform these and no other duties, no other method of payment or reimbursement is practicable. At any rate this is the prevailing practice with respect to Tompkins county. Before the adoption of chapter 298 of the Laws of 1909, entitled "An act to make the office of the county clerk of Tompkins county a salaried office and to regulate the management thereof," the amount allowed by the State Board of Tax Commissioners was, of course, payable to the county clerk in his individual capacity. This act, which was obviously designed to place the office of county clerk upon a strictly salaried basis, provides (section 1) that he "shall receive as compensation for all his services" an annual salary of $2,400. Section 2 provides that: -- * * "It shall be the duty of said clerk to perform any and all services which he is or shall be required or authorized by law to perform by virtue or by reason of his holding such office, for the State, for the county and for individuals, and no compensation, payment or allowances shall be made to him for his own use or for any such services except the salary aforesaid." Section 3 provides that: ; "All the fees, emoluments and perquisites which such clerk shall charge or receive, or which he shall be legally authorized, required or entitled by law to receive, long to the county of Tompkins." * * shall be Section 5 provides that he shall make a monthly report to the county treasurer "of all moneys received each day by him or his assistants for fees, perquisites and emoluments, by this act belonging to said county, and for all services rendered by him or his assistants in their official capacity." And section 6 requires him to "pay over to the county treasurer of Tompkins county for the benefit of said county the whole amount of moneys received by him since making the last prreceding monthly statement." Section 8 provides that he shall have such deputies, clerks and assistants as may be recommended by the board of supervisors, which shall fix their salaries which shall be county charges. Construing these acts together in the light of the evil which the latter was intended to remedy, the conclusion is, I think, irresistible that the sums allowed by the State Board of Tax Commissioners pursuant to the provisions of section 262 of the Tax Law, are to be accounted for and paid over to the county treasurer as in sections 5 and 6 of the salary act provided. Board of Supervisors of Erie County v. Jones, 119 People ex rel. Conine v. Steuben County, 183 N. Y. · 114. as compen The intent of chapter 298 of the Laws of 1908 was to place this office upon a strictly salary basis. It provides that the county clerk shall receive an annual salary of $2,400 per annum sation for all his services." This phrase is plain and unambiguous and is not restricted by any other provision of the statute. It obviously relates as well to services performed for the State as for the county or for individuals. Section 2 requires him to perform such services as he is or shall be required or authorized by law to perform "for the State," and further provides that "no compensation, payment or allowance shall be made to him for his own use or for any such services, except the salary aforesaid." The language of the act plainly implies that such salary is to be his sole and only reward. "For his services" means for all his services for the entire and complete performance of his official duties, and a specific compensation awarded for those services implies the full and entire compensation to which he is entitled." Supervisors of Erie County v. Jones (supra). And the same principles apply to his subordinates whose salaries the act provides are to be fixed by the board of supervisors (section 8). The salary so provided must be deemed to be in full of all compensation allowed them for every official duty pertaining to their office, including their services in connection with the enforcement of the provisions of the Mortgage Tax Law. I am unable to find anything in the general scheme of the Mortgage Tax Law or in the language employed in section 262 to indicate a contrary intent. I am of the opinion that where as here the office of recording officer is salaried, it is his duty to present to the State Board of Tax Commissioners a claim for the necessary expenses for the purposes of the Mortgage Tax Law, to deduct the amount allowed by the board and turn the same over to the county treasurer as required by the salary act. For such actual disbursements as he necessarily incurs in connection with the enforcement of the provisions of the law, he may secure reimbursement from the county in the manner provided by section 12 of the Salary Act. Inasmuch as the Salary Act provides full compensation for the recording officer and his necessary deputies, clerks and assistants, he would seem to be entitled under the law to nothing more. Dated December 28, 1911. THOMAS CARMODY, TO BERT T. BAKER, Esq., Clerk Board of Supervisors, Ithaca N. Y. |