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.
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Does county civil service protection cover a court investigator appointed by a probate judge in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a court investigator appointed by a statutory county probate judge IS covered by the Tarrant County civil service system. Chapter 158 of the Local Government Code m…
Can a Texas school district use free open-source textbooks to satisfy the state's classroom set requirement?
The Attorney General answered seven of the State Board of Education's eight questions about 2009 changes to the Education Code. The big points: a university 'open-source' textbook (a free, downloadabl…
Can the surviving spouse of a Texas officer killed in the line of duty buy health insurance if they had not enrolled before the death?
The Attorney General declined to decide this one. Chapter 615 of the Government Code lets an eligible surviving spouse 'purchase continued health insurance benefits' from the deceased officer's employ…
Does a Texas home-rule city have to pay impact fees charged by another local government?
The Attorney General concluded that a political subdivision, including a home-rule city, must pay impact fees imposed by another political subdivision under chapter 395 of the Local Government Code. T…
Who issues the final decision in Texas motor vehicle dealer cases, the DMV Board or the division director?
The Attorney General answered three questions from the new Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board. First, the Board issues the final order in contested cases under Occupations Code chapter 2301 (the…
Can a Texas 4A economic development corporation use sales tax money to help an affordable housing nonprofit?
The Attorney General did not give a yes or no. A 4A (now 'Type A') economic development corporation can spend its sales tax revenue only on 'authorized projects' as defined in the Development Corporat…
Can a civilian police review board look at officers' personnel files in Texas?
The Attorney General did not give a yes or no. Local Government Code section 143.089(g) lets a police or fire department keep an internal personnel file 'for the department's use' and flatly bars rele…
Must a Texas county attorney represent the county ethics commission, or can it hire its own lawyer?
The Attorney General concluded that the El Paso County Attorney is required by Local Government Code section 161.061 to represent the El Paso County Ethics Commission in all legal matters, and that hi…
In a large Texas county, who chooses the outside lawyer for the county's lawsuits, the commissioners or the DA?
The Attorney General concluded that in Dallas County the line runs like this: the commissioners court decides whether to bring or defend a lawsuit, but Local Government Code section 89.001 makes the C…
Can Texas require day-care workers to take more training hours than the statute's minimum?
The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely find that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services may, by rule, require more training hours for day-care center and group day-ca…
Who gets the money from phone cards sold in a Texas county jail commissary, the sheriff or the county?
The Attorney General concluded that revenue from prepaid phone cards sold in a county jail commissary should be credited to the sheriff, as sole custodian of the commissary fund, for the benefit of ja…
Can a Texas school district stop a parent from bringing an advocate to deal with their child's education?
The Attorney General could answer only in general terms, because the request did not define 'advocate' or give any context. Where the law specifically allows an advocate, a school district cannot say …
Are bingo eight-liner machines that pay out cards or gift certificates legal in Texas?
No. The Attorney General concluded these machines were gambling devices, not the kind of exempt 'noncash merchandise prize.' The opinion explained that an award of a bingo card, paper, card-minding de…
What counts as a 'normal course load' for funding Texas virtual school courses?
The Attorney General could not say the definition had to be a four-hour-per-day course load. Education Code section 42.159 pays school districts and charter schools different amounts depending on whet…
Can a Texas school district change its trustee election date and adjust term lengths?
A court would likely conclude yes. The Attorney General determined that under Election Code section 41.0052, a school district could move its general election for trustees to the November uniform elec…
How is a hurricane-damaged Texas home reappraised for property taxes after repairs?
It depended on whether the home had been rendered uninhabitable or unusable. The Attorney General explained that if a residence homestead was rendered uninhabitable or unusable by the storm, Tax Code …
Is a charity Super Bowl squares game illegal gambling in Texas?
No, on the specific facts described. A state representative described a charitable 'squares game': donors buy squares on a grid tied to a major game like the Super Bowl, each square names a charity, a…
Does a Texas facility need a license to provide medication abortions?
Two answers. First, the Attorney General concluded that chapter 245 of the Health and Safety Code requires abortion facilities to be licensed, with limited exceptions, and that a 'medical abortion' (p…
Can a Texas abortion facility give the required 24-hour informed-consent information with a prerecorded phone message or a one-way recorded call?
Probably not. The Attorney General concluded that, although the statute's wording is ambiguous, a court would more likely than not read Health and Safety Code section 171.012 to require a live convers…
Can someone who breeds birds, rats, mice, or hamsters to sell to pet shops register their delivery vehicle as a 'farm vehicle' for the cheaper Texas plate?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Transportation Code section 502.163, which lets an owner register a commercial vehicle as a 'farm vehicle' for half the normal fee if it is used only to haul th…
In Texas, can a repossession agent do locksmith work without a Private Security Act license, or does the repo exemption only cover work tied to the repossession?
The exemption is broader than just investigation, but it is not unlimited. The Attorney General concluded that the Occupations Code section 1702.324(b)(3) exemption for a person engaged exclusively in…
Who decides how much, if anything, the judges who sit on a Texas county juvenile board get paid?
The county commissioners court. The Attorney General concluded that Human Resources Code section 152.0034(b), which says a commissioners court 'may reasonably compensate' each juvenile board member fo…
How can a Texas hospital district set a property tax rate again after going years without levying any tax?
The Attorney General had no clean answer, because the Tax Code does not provide one. The Amarillo Hospital District had not levied a property tax since 1996, when it sold its hospital and funded indig…
If a Texas subdivision project goes dormant, can a city charge higher impact fees when the developer restarts, and can the developer get the old fees refunded?
The Attorney General gave several answers tied to Local Government Code chapters 245 and 395. A municipality must refund impact fees only in the specific situations listed in section 395.025 (for exam…
Did two directors of a Texas water conservation district have to disclose their conflicts of interest and sit out a vote on a district rule that benefited them?
The Attorney General could not give a yes-or-no answer, because it turned on facts the opinion process cannot resolve. Chapter 171 of the Local Government Code requires a local official with a 'substa…
If two Texas groundwater districts both annex the same land, which one gets to regulate and tax it?
The Attorney General could not definitively answer, calling it an apparent question of first impression. Two groundwater conservation districts had each annexed the same roughly 14,202 acres in Caldwe…
Can a Texas school superintendent who has final hiring authority employ a relative of a school board member, or does the nepotism law block it?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that after the Legislature added Education Code section 11.1513(f), a school district is generally prohibited from employing a person related (within the n…
Can a Texas school district run fiber-optic cable along a county road right-of-way without the county's permission?
No. The Attorney General concluded that no statute gives an independent school district the right to access and use a county road right-of-way to install fiber-optic cable, so the district was not ent…
If my land was annexed into one Texas groundwater conservation district but later included in a new district the Legislature created, which district covers it?
The later special law wins. The Attorney General concluded that when a groundwater conservation district annexed a tract in an adjacent county under general law, and the Legislature then created a new…
Who controls the money a Texas county jail commissary brings in, and does the interest it earns go to the county general fund?
The sheriff controls it, and the interest stays with the fund. The Attorney General concluded that proceeds from a county jail commissary are not funds 'belonging to the county' under Local Government…
Can a Texas property owner force the appraisal district to list land and the buildings on it as separate parcels, or does the chief appraiser decide?
The chief appraiser decides. The Attorney General concluded that no statute directly says who determines whether land and improvements under common ownership are combined on a single parcel identifica…
Can a Texas county post driver's license photos of people who owe traffic fines on its public website?
The Attorney General gave a split answer. The Federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act and the Texas Motor Vehicle Records Disclosure Act do not prohibit the Department of Public Safety from giving dri…
Could a Texas city apply a developer's credit for building an oversized water line against sewer impact fees owed by the same development?
Yes. GA-0788 concluded that chapter 395 did not require the credit to stay within the water-fee category, although a city could choose to limit the credit through its ordinance or agreement.
If I'm over 65 and file a tax deferral, can a property tax loan company still force the sale of my home over unpaid taxes?
No, not while the deferral is in effect. The Attorney General concluded that if an individual age 65 or older properly files a tax deferment under Tax Code section 33.06, a property tax lender holding…
Can the same person serve on both a Texas water utility district board and a community college board of trustees at the same time?
Probably not, but the answer depends on the facts. The Attorney General concluded that holding a seat on the board of the Agua Special Utility District and a seat on the South Texas College District b…
Did HB 3646 require my Texas school district to give me both the state raise and my local salary-schedule step increase in 2010-2011?
Yes, both. The Attorney General concluded that under Education Code section 21.402, as amended by House Bill 3646, a district that had adopted a 2008-2009 local salary schedule had to pay an educator …
Does a Texas sheriff have a conflict of interest in accepting bail bonds if his stepson works for the bail bond company?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the conflict-of-interest provisions of Local Government Code section 171.004 do not apply to a sheriff's performance of his statutory bail-bond and forfeiture d…
Do petitioners have to pay a deposit to call a local option alcohol election in a Texas city that sits entirely within one county?
No deposit is required in that situation. The Attorney General concluded that the county must initially pay the expense of holding the first election to legalize, and the first election to prohibit, t…
Can a company be hired as a city's construction manager-at-risk if a related company is already the project's design engineer in Texas?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that neither subsection (c) nor subsection (d) of Local Government Code section 271.118 bars a company from being selected as a construction manager-at-risk on a mu…
Can a Texas water supply corporation refuse to extend water service to a new home when the subdivision's developer didn't follow its service rules?
It has a choice. The Attorney General concluded that under Water Code section 13.2502(a), when a water supply corporation documents that the subdivision's developer failed to comply with the corporati…
Does the Texas law banning transfer-fee deed restrictions wipe out covenants that were already recorded before the law took effect?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Property Code section 5.017(b), which voids deed restrictions and other covenants requiring a fee on a future transfer of residential property, operates prospec…
Can a Texas mental health authority sell or lease state land it was given and spend the proceeds on services instead of using the land itself?
No. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 1759 (2007) and House Bill 1023 (2009), which transferred state property to Spindletop Mental Health Mental Retardation Services for community-based …
Can a Texas commissioners court dock county clerk employees' pay for time off the clerk gave them during a weather emergency?
Probably not. The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely hold that the Grayson County Commissioners Court may not amend the county budget midyear to transfer funds out of the county cler…
How does the Texas Comptroller calculate whether the $182 million State Highway Fund trigger for the rail relocation fund is met?
The Attorney General answered the Comptroller's two questions about a budget rider (article IX, section 17.10 of the 2010-2011 General Appropriations Act) that allocated $182 million from the State Hi…
Is a Texas budget rider that moves money and staff from TxDOT to the new Department of Motor Vehicles a new appropriation?
Probably not. The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely hold that section 17.30(b), article IX of the 2010-2011 General Appropriations Act, which directed the Texas Department of Transp…
How did Texas school districts have to calculate and adopt property-tax rates under the 2010 rollback-election rules?
Under the 2010 statute, a school district could not raise its maintenance-and-operation rate above the rollback formula's M&O ceiling without voter approval, even if the combined rate stayed below the…
Can a Texas school district run payroll deductions for its employees' political action committee (PAC) contributions?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Texas law prohibits a school district from using its resources to process payroll deductions for contributions to political committees such as the TSTA-PAC and …
Can a Texas court clerk apply a defendant's cash bail refund to their unpaid fines instead of giving it back?
No, not before the refund. The Attorney General concluded that under article 17.02 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a district clerk may not accept an assignment of a defendant's cash bail bond refu…
Does the Texas Youth Commission's sex-offender registration rule conflict with a juvenile court's power to defer a juvenile's registration?
Probably not. The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely hold that the Texas Youth Commission rule (37 Texas Administrative Code section 87.85(g)(3)), which directs TYC to register a juv…
When a Texas city adopts the Fire and Police Employee Relations Act, do the civil-service limits on how many deputies the department head can appoint still apply?
No, not unless the city puts them back through bargaining. The Attorney General reconsidered and affirmed Opinion GA-0662, concluding that when a municipality subject to the Fire Fighter and Police Of…
Can a water company that collects a Texas county's trash fees shut off the customer's water for not paying the solid waste bill?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that under section 364.034(d)(2) of the Health and Safety Code, a utility company that contracts with a county to collect the fees for the county's solid waste disp…
Does a Texas county commissioner automatically resign just by showing interest in running for another office?
Not on these facts, and partly the Attorney General would not say. Under the Texas Constitution's resign-to-run provision (article XVI, section 65), certain officeholders, including county commissione…
Must a Texas public university invest its endowment funds only in the limited investments allowed by the Public Funds Investment Act?
No. The Attorney General concluded that when the governing board of a public institution of higher education exercises its authority to establish and manage an endowment fund under Education Code sect…
What can the board of directors of the Texas School Safety Center do with the Center's budget and programs?
The Attorney General answered three of the four questions. First, the Board must approve a budget for the Center each year, and because that approval requirement would be meaningless if it had to rubb…
Can a Texas general-law city manager also serve on the local school district's board of trustees?
Yes, at least under the conflicting-loyalties rule the question asked about. The common-law doctrine of incompatibility blocks one person from holding two positions only when both are public 'offices.…
Can a Texas district attorney decline to file charges because the suspect probably has a defense?
Yes, that call is the prosecutor's to make. The Attorney General did not decide whether the parental-consent defense in Penal Code section 43.24(c)(2) actually applied to the facts described. Instead,…
Does the Texas Governor have to appoint a judge to a newly created district court, and what happens if he doesn't?
The Texas Constitution says the Governor 'shall' fill a vacancy in a district court, but the opinion concluded he cannot be forced to: the Governor is immune from mandamus, and no statute or constitut…
Does a Texas city need a voter petition before it can hold an election to leave a regional transit authority?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a municipality does not have to receive a petition signed by 20 percent of its qualified voters before calling an election to withdraw from a regional transport…
Can a small Texas general-law city enforce a stormwater pollution ordinance outside its city limits?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that Water Code section 26.177 applies to a Type A general-law municipality (the statute refers to 'a city' or 'a municipality' without distinction, and the environ…
Can a Texas justice of the peace or municipal court award ownership of a car, and will the DMV issue a new title from that order?
It depends on the source of authority. On Code of Criminal Procedure articles 47.01a(a) and 47.02(b), which deal with disposition of allegedly stolen property, the Attorney General could not say with …
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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.