An assessor of a second class county may receive from the county court reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses actually and necessarily incurred in carrying out his official duties within the county at the reasonable rate of eight cents per mile.

ASSESSOR: COUNTY ASSESSOR: SECOND CLASS COUNTY: MILEAGE: TRAVEL EXPENSES: An assessor or a second class county may receive from the county court reimburse- ment for reasonable travel expenses actually and necessarily tncurred in carrying out his official ' duties within the county at t he reasonable rate of eight cents per mile. · Opinion No . 29 March 11, 1964 Honorable Don E. Burrell Prosecuting Attorney Springfield, Missouri Dear Mr. Burrell: F l LED ~~ Your recent request for an opinion of this office reads as fol lows: "I have been requested to obtain an opinion as to whether or not the County Court in a second class county can pay mileage t o the County Assessor and i f so, under what cir- cumstances and at what rate can this mileage be paid. " Thi~ office was presented with a simalar opinion request regarding the reimbur sement for t ravel expenses of the collector of a second class countyo This office concluded, in Opinion No . 283, under date of September 10, 1963, addressed to the Honorable Brunson Hollingsworth_, that: "A collector of a second class county may receive from the count y court re~bursement for reasonabl~ travel expenses actually and necessarily incurred in the carrying out of t he official duties imposed by Sections 139.080 and 150.110, RSMo 1959o'' The situation i nvolving the reimbursement of a collector of a second class county and t he assessor of a second class county is ver y similar: Both lack a specific mandate for such reimbursement; both are to receive salaries i n l i~u e>f .fees. The general statute, Section 49.275_, RSMo 1959, providi ng zor mile3ge to public officers of first class counties appl ies t o coJle ctors and assessors of first class counties but not t o collectors and assessors of second class counties. In addit ion, in r egard to the latter similarity, the assessor of the counties of ~he third and fourth class are now expressly provided travel expenses under Section 53.135, Cum. Supp ., 1963. I t is the opinion of chis office t hat due to the above stated similarities between collect or and assessor of second class Honorable Don E. Burrell counties, the conclusion of this office that ·a collector of a second class county may receive reimbursement for .reasonable travel expenses necessari ly and actually incurred in carrying out the statutory dut ies of collector, applies equally to the assessor of a second cl ass county so that he .may receive reim- bursement for reasonable travel expenses necessartly and actually incurred in carrying out the statutory duties of assessor. Section 53.135, supra, which provides for reimbursement for assessors of counties of the thir d and fourth class "for actual and necessary t ravel expenses incurred in the perform- ance of his official duties within the county at the rate of eight cents per mile," does not have the effect of prohibiting payment of such expenses in other counties where there is no statutory authority for such payment. Rather, it constitutes legislative recogniti on of the propriety of expenditures for travel expenses and the rate to be allowed. In Rinehart v. Howell County, 153 SW2d 381, the court held that a ·statute, which provided stenographic expenses in larger counties did not exclude by such expression the payment of stenographic expenses in smaller counties but rather it consti- tuted the basic recognition of the propri ety of such expenses . Surely, if the legislature recognized the propriety of expenses in a smaller county, it of necessity must have recognized that such expenses exist in larger counties and did not intend to discriminate against the larger communities, just as in the Rinehart case it was held that the legislature did not intend to discriminate against smaller communities. CONCLUSION Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that an assessor of a second class county may receive from the county court re- imbursement for reasonable t ravel expenses actually and necessarily incurred in carrying out his official duti es within the county at the reasonable rate of eight cents per mile. The foregoing opinion, which I hereby approve, was prepared by my assistant, Jeremiah D. Finnegan. Yours very truly, ~~s=r.4J&~ Attorney General