Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
No Texas opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Is machinery used at a cattle feedlot exempt from property tax in Texas?
Representative Harvey Hilderbran asked the Attorney General whether machinery and equipment used at a cattle feedlot are 'used in the production of farm or ranch products,' which would make them imple…
Can a Texas county take money from private companies to fix specific roads?
Waller County's district attorney asked whether a county that runs its roads under the County Road Department System (subchapter D of Transportation Code chapter 252) can accept money from private com…
Can a Texas county charge oil companies a permit fee for new driveways onto county roads?
Howard County asked whether its commissioners court could make oil and gas operators get a permit, and pay a fee, before building a new access point connecting a private road to a county road, to offs…
Does Texas have to pay hurricane claims that TWIA can't cover?
A House committee chair asked whether the State of Texas is legally obligated to pay windstorm and hail losses that exceed what the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) can pay. The AG conclud…
Can a Texas water district make rules about weeds and illegal dumping?
State Senator Glenn Hegar asked whether a water control and improvement district (WCID) can adopt and enforce rules on weed control and illegal dumping. The AG concluded that a WCID has only the power…
Can a private company pay a Texas county to fix specific roads?
A county auditor asked two questions about letting a private company fund repairs to specific county roads, where the construction company bills the county, the county passes the bill to the company, …
Can Texas deny housing tax-credit points for funding from a related party?
Senator Leticia Van de Putte asked whether the 2013 Qualified Allocation Plan that Texas's housing agency (TDHCA) uses to award low-income housing tax credits complied with Government Code section 230…
Can Texas Medical Board investigators carry a concealed handgun on the job?
The Texas Medical Board asked whether it could let its investigators who hold a concealed handgun license (CHL) carry a concealed handgun while on duty without exposing the Board to liability. The AG …
Can a Texas county treat a rental cabin development as a subdivision?
Wilson County asked whether it could regulate, as a subdivision, the partition of land into individual cabin-rental tracts in the unincorporated part of the county (a setup in the Eagle Ford Shale whe…
What is the $20 fee for unpaid county fines on Texas vehicle registration?
The Office of Court Administration asked seven questions about how to apply Transportation Code section 502.010 after two different 2011 bills amended it, one of which simply reenacted the whole statu…
How does Texas appoint and pay a temporary justice of the peace?
A county auditor asked five questions about temporary justices of the peace appointed under Government Code section 27.055. The AG concluded that a county judge may appoint only one qualified person a…
Does Texas charge interest to restore a reinstated state worker's pension credit?
The Health and Human Services Commission asked whether it may pay, or an employee must pay, interest on the money used to restore service credit in the Employees Retirement System (ERS) when a worker …
Could Texas cities and school districts offer domestic partnership benefits to employees?
Senator Dan Patrick asked whether article I, section 32 of the Texas Constitution stopped Texas cities, counties, and school districts from offering domestic partnership benefits to their employees. T…
Can a Texas county auditor inspect inmates' property held in the county jail?
The Tarrant County district attorney asked whether the county auditor could examine inmates' noncash property held at the county jail to verify the property receipts, after the sheriff refused on the …
Can a Texas commissioners court change the weekday it holds its regular monthly meetings?
A county district attorney asked whether a commissioners court could change the day of the week it convenes for its regular monthly term during the current fiscal year, after it had already designated…
Is it constitutional for a Texas judge to shorten a state jail sentence for program participation?
A district attorney asked whether article 42.12, section 15(h)(6) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which lets a judge shorten the time a defendant must serve in a state jail felony facility by up to…
Does the Texas Open Meetings Act apply to a legislative advisory commission?
A state representative who chaired the Partnership Advisory Commission asked whether the commission, which reviews public-private partnership proposals and makes recommendations, was subject to the Te…
Does Texas require competitive bidding for Permanent School Fund investments?
The chair of the State Board of Education asked whether the board must use the competitive bidding process in the State Purchasing and General Services Act for three kinds of Permanent School Fund act…
Can a Texas district attorney keep a commission on bond forfeiture money?
A district attorney asked whether he could retain a commission on money his office collects in bond forfeiture cases under Government Code section 41.005, whether the commissioners court must approve …
Can a Texas school board move a single-member trustee into a new at-large seat?
A House committee chair asked whether the Beaumont ISD board could appoint one of its sitting single-member district trustees, whose term ran to 2015, to one of two new at-large positions running to 2…
Do State Bar of Texas petition candidates still have to follow election rules?
The State Bar of Texas executive director asked whether candidates for president-elect who get on the ballot by petition under Government Code section 81.019(c) are still subject to the State Bar's el…
Does a Texas sheriff need the commissioners court to approve the office policy manual?
A county attorney asked whether a sheriff must submit the sheriff's office policy manual to the county commissioners court for approval or rejection. The Attorney General concluded that no statute aut…
Can an arrested person in Texas waive being read their rights by a magistrate?
A House committee chair asked whether a magistrate's duty to admonish an arrested person under article 15.17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is mandatory, and whether an arrested person may waive be…
Can a Texas court order destruction of blood evidence after a DWI case ends?
The Harris County District Attorney asked whether a court may order the destruction of blood seized while investigating an intoxication-related misdemeanor, and whether the DA's office may petition fo…
Can a Texas judge order a probation department director to personally prepare a presentence investigation report?
The Hunt County District Attorney and County Attorney asked whether a district judge could compel the local community supervision (probation) department's director to personally prepare and present pr…
Can a Texas economic development corporation get its employees health benefits through a government risk pool?
State Senator John Carona asked whether an economic development corporation could cover its employees through a risk pool set up under chapter 172 of the Local Government Code, since those pools are g…
Can a city council member step aside during a public meeting to talk privately with a city employee?
A district attorney asked whether a member of a governmental body, such as a city council member, may leave an open public meeting to confer privately with an employee of that body while a quorum rema…
Can a Texas county require trash service in a city's extraterritorial area without the city's agreement?
A state representative asked whether a county could provide mandatory solid waste (trash) disposal service, by contract or otherwise, in part of the county that lies within a city's extraterritorial j…
Does a Texas city need a voter election before collecting crime and fire district sales tax in limited-purpose annexed areas?
A state representative asked, on behalf of a former colleague, whether the Comptroller could adopt rules that effectively stop a city from imposing a sales and use tax under an existing strategic part…
Can a Texas prosecutor make you plead guilty to get into a pretrial diversion program?
The Office of Court Administration asked whether a prosecutor may require a defendant to plead guilty as a condition of entering a pretrial intervention (pretrial diversion) program under section 76.0…
Can a Texas home-rule city extend its council members' terms to four years without a charter amendment?
A state representative asked, about home-rule cities generally and the City of Socorro specifically, whether a home-rule city may lengthen its officers' terms from three to four years without first am…
Is a Texas junior college district a 'school district' that can avoid paying city impact fees?
A state representative asked whether a junior college district counts as a 'school district' under section 395.022(b) of the Local Government Code, the provision that lets a school district avoid payi…
Must Texas Medicaid pay the Medicare ambulance deductibles for people on both Medicare and Medicaid?
A state senator asked whether an HHSC Medicaid reimbursement rule (rule 354.1143) conflicts with section 32.050(c) of the Human Resources Code, which says that for an ambulance service provided to a p…
Can a senior status federal judge perform a wedding ceremony in Texas?
A district attorney asked whether a 'senior status' federal judge, one who has retired from regular active duty but still hears cases, may conduct a marriage ceremony in Texas. The Attorney General co…
Can a Texas county issue tax increment bonds backed by property tax revenue for a road project?
A state representative asked whether a county may form a transportation reinvestment zone, collect an ad valorem (property) tax increment, and pledge that increment to secure bonds for a transportatio…
Can a Texas city make a development project expire sooner than five years under its own ordinance?
A state representative asked whether the City of Austin's Project Duration Ordinance, which expired development projects on three- or five-year timelines and when permits were not obtained on schedule…
Can Texas Sunset Commission staff see a state agency's confidential files and sit in on its closed meetings during a review?
The Chair of the Sunset Advisory Commission asked whether its staff, while reviewing the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, could obtain that commission's confidential records (including memos cove…
Can a Texas county probation department pay its bills without the county auditor signing off?
The Cherokee County Attorney asked whether the county's Community Supervision and Corrections Department (the local probation department) could adopt an accounting procedure paying its bills on the Co…
Can a Texas bail bondsman swap out the type of collateral backing their license?
The El Paso County Attorney asked whether a county bail bond board could let a licensed bondsman switch part of the collateral backing his license, for example trading some of a cash deposit for a rea…
Does a sex offender in Texas register with the city police or the county sheriff?
A district attorney asked whether a home-rule city could require sex offenders living inside the city to register with the county sheriff instead of the city's chief of police, after the City of Mules…
Can a foreign medical school get approved to offer courses or clinical training in Texas?
The Commissioner of Higher Education asked whether the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board could issue a certificate of authority, the credential a private school needs to grant degrees or offer…
Can a judge or police officer who keeps their home address off their license still get a homestead tax exemption in Texas?
A state senator asked how to resolve an apparent conflict: Transportation Code sections 521.121(c) and 521.1211(b) let judges, their spouses, and peace officers leave their residence address off their…
Does a county owe penalties and interest on unpaid property taxes for land it bought for public use?
The Webb County Attorney asked whether a taxing authority could charge, and the county had to pay, penalties and interest on unpaid ad valorem (property) taxes for the year a county bought several pro…
Can my employer stop me from keeping a gun locked in my car in the work parking lot in Texas?
A state senator asked several questions about Labor Code section 52.061, the 2011 'parking lot' law that bars an employer from prohibiting a licensed employee from transporting or storing a firearm in…
Can a bail bond board take away an attorney's right to write bail bonds over a felony conviction in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a county bail bond board may suspend or revoke an attorney's authority to write bail bonds based on a felony conviction only when the felony grew out of conduct inv…
When does a state agency's demand to repay grant money count as a debt to the state in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a state agency's demand letter seeking repayment of grant funds, based on an unadjudicated claim that the grantee breached the contract, does not by itself create a…
Can a Texas veteran use the Hazlewood Act tuition exemption without first using up their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board had authority to adopt a rule that would let a veteran who qualifies for the state Hazlewood Act tuition exemption cla…
Can San Antonio and VIA spend transit sales tax on a streetcar if voters were told the money would not fund light rail?
The Attorney General declined to decide whether preelection statements, including a VIA election brochure and a reported VIA board resolution saying advanced transportation district (ATD) sales tax wo…
Can a prosecutor charge someone with murder years later if the victim dies long after the original assault?
The Montgomery County Attorney asked whether an adult could be prosecuted for murder over a 1998 assault he committed at age 13, where the victim did not die until 2011, and whether doing so would vio…
Where can I legally drive a golf cart in Texas, and do the golf-course rules apply inside my neighborhood?
The Attorney General read section 551.403 of the Transportation Code as listing separate places a golf cart may legally be driven: in a qualifying master planned community, on a public or private beac…
Can a Texas tax office refuse to transfer my property tax lien to a tax lender, and what costs does that lien cover?
The Attorney General concluded that transferring a property tax lien under section 32.06 of the Tax Code is a ministerial act. Once a taxpayer authorizes a transferee to pay the taxes and the statute'…
Does Texas have to reveal which retailers a beer or liquor distributor sold to when it shares sales data?
Alcoholic beverage distributors file confidential monthly sales reports with the Texas Comptroller under Tax Code section 151.462. A narrow exception in section 111.006(h) requires the Comptroller to …
Does a Texas event have to apply first before it can get Major Events Trust Fund money?
The General Land Office Commissioner asked whether an event can draw on the state's Major Events Trust Fund if a site selection organization picked the Texas site before any local entity applied. The …
Can my Texas city ban alcohol sales within 1,000 feet of a public school?
The Attorney General concluded that a home-rule city with a population under 900,000 cannot, on its own, adopt an ordinance banning alcohol sales within 1,000 feet of a public school. The Alcoholic Be…
Can a Texas water district build or operate inside another district's boundaries without permission?
A state representative asked whether the Brazoria County Conservation and Reclamation District Number Three could carry out works inside another district's boundaries without a contract or permission.…
Can a Texas county keep a handling fee out of my cash bail refund?
The Attorney General concluded that, after a 2011 amendment to article 17.02 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a county can no longer deduct an accounting and administrative fee from the refund of a …
Does a Texas city need an election to sell its sewer system to a river authority?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas municipality generally must hold an election under Government Code section 1502.055(a) before selling a utility system. But there is an exception: when a ci…
Can a Texas county lease its school land and require the tenant to pay for upkeep?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas county is generally authorized to lease its county school land under a lease that requires the lessee to spend money on land management and maintenance. Art…
If a quorum of a board shows up at a committee meeting, does the Open Meetings Act apply?
The Attorney General concluded that if a quorum of a governmental body's board attends one of its committee meetings and there is deliberation about public business or policy the board controls, the c…
Who owns the money a county crime victims' office raises through donations and fundraisers?
The Attorney General concluded that a court could find that property a county crime victims' office raises through fundraisers and donations belongs to the county, not the office. A crime victims' off…
Browse Texas opinions by topic
Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.