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 a city transit agency have to use competitive bidding to build a monorail or rail transit system?
Mostly yes, but with an exception. The Attorney General concluded that a metropolitan transit authority's purchase of a new rail or monorail system was subject to the competitive bidding requirement o…
What does 'locality where the work is performed' mean under the Texas prevailing wage law?
The political subdivision most nearly corresponding to where the work is done, the Attorney General concluded. Under article 5159a, a state agency setting a prevailing wage for a public works project …
Does a Texas school district have to use competitive bidding to hire a food service management company?
Yes, when the district participates in federal school nutrition programs. The Attorney General concluded that federal regulations governing the National School Lunch Program and similar programs requi…
If a Texas county advertises for bids and gets none, can it just buy directly or must it advertise again?
The Attorney General concluded the county had to readvertise. Under the County Purchasing Act (Local Government Code sections 262.022 through 262.035), a purchase over $10,000 had to go through sealed…
Can a Texas county pay a real estate agent a finder's fee for finding a buyer of county land at auction?
Yes, if all other legal requirements are met. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a county commissioners court may offer and pay a finder's fee to a real estate agent for locating…
If a Texas county's contracted supplier can't deliver, can the county buy the shortfall from another vendor without new bids?
Yes. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the County Purchasing Act (chapter 262 of the Local Government Code) does not stop a county from making an isolated spot purchase of suppl…
Does a county need payment and performance bonds on a unit-price road-materials contract when the final total price is not known in advance?
In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the unknown final price of a county unit-price requirements contract does not exempt it from bidding or bonding rules. A county estimates the c…
Which competitive-bidding law governed a Texas county contract to build a vehicle maintenance facility?
The County Purchasing Act governed. The Attorney General concluded that Local Government Code section 271.024 did not independently require bidding and that subchapter B of chapter 271 did not govern …
Do new government purchasing rules apply to a contract that was signed before the law took effect?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded that section 140.003 of the Local Government Code, which made district attorney purchases subject to the county competitive-bidding r…
Can a Texas county commissioners court require prevailing wages, health benefits, or English-speaking staff on contracts that aren't public works projects?
Generally no, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded a county must determine and pay prevailing wages, including fringe benefits, on public works contracts, but has no authorit…
Can a Texas city require its outside security guard contractors to provide health insurance to their employees as a condition of winning the contract?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded that requiring contractors to provide employee health insurance benefits has no direct relation to the quality of security guard serv…
Can a Texas commissioners court award a design-build contract for a public building through competitive bidding?
No, not if the contract includes architectural or engineering services. The Attorney General concluded that Texas's Professional Services Procurement Act barred commissioners courts from awarding thos…
Does a Texas county attorney's office count as a 'specialized local entity' under the county purchasing law, and what counts as a 'professional service' exempt from competitive bidding?
The Attorney General concluded that a county attorney's office, even one performing district-attorney-type duties under the Professional Prosecutors Act, is not a 'specialized local entity' under sect…
Does a Texas sheriff have to go through the county purchasing agent to set up a jail commissary contract?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 351.0415 of the Local Government Code lets the sheriff enter into a contract regarding the county jail commissary without consultin…
Can a Texas county lease out county-owned land with a renewal option, and can it skip competitive bidding?
It can add a reasonable renewal option, but it cannot skip the public auction. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 263.001 of the Local Government Code lets a commissioner…
Does a Texas city have to take competitive bids to hire a third party administrator for its insurance plan?
It depends on what the administrator actually does. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that whether a third party administrator's (TPA's) services are exempt 'professional services' u…
Can a Texas county buy road materials from a single 'sole source' supplier without competitive bids under the court/engineer road system?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that under the court/engineer road system (article 6702-1, section 3.211), a county road-material purchase over $5,000 must be made on competiti…
Does Texas have to follow the general state purchasing law when it contracts out its Medicaid insurance program?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Human Services' contract for Medicaid purchased health services insurance is not governed by article 601b, the general …
In a Texas county that has a county purchasing agent, who is allowed to buy the county's supplies, and does the $5,000 competitive-bid rule apply to the agent?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General concluded that in a county with a county purchasing agent, that agent must make all purchases that are not required to go out for competitive bid; individual …
Does a Texas prosecutor have to use county competitive bidding when spending money from the hot check fund?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General concluded no. The 'hot check fund,' built from fees a county, district, or criminal district attorney collects for processing bad checks, is spent at the sole…
Does a Texas school district have to take competitive bids to hire a construction management consultant?
No, not for the consultant itself. The Attorney General concluded a contract for a construction management consultant's services counts as 'professional services' and is exempt from the competitive bi…
Could a Texas county sign a long-term solid-waste contract, include minimum-delivery or cost-plus terms, and award it without competitive bidding?
In 1988, the Attorney General concluded that a Texas county could enter a long-term solid-waste service contract that bound future commissioners courts, include properly measured damages for a deliver…
Did a Texas county have to competitively procure a private company's microfilming and indexing services for the county clerk?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the company contract was neither a personal service, because the commissioners court had not selected specific individuals to perform it, nor a professional se…
Could Harris County require a construction contractor to perform at least 25 percent of the work with the contractor's own employees?
No. The county's competitive-bidding laws did not authorize that restriction, and a self-performance requirement would improperly limit competition. The county could still reject a particular bid as n…
Could a Texas sheriff buy food and other county-jail supplies without following the County Purchasing Act?
No. The sheriff controlled the jail's daily operation, but purchases for the jail remained subject to the County Purchasing Act, including competitive-bidding rules and commissioners court approval wh…
Does a Texas public university have to offer its employees every approved HMO, or can it choose which ones?
The 1987 opinion concluded that a public college or university had to consider applications from every HMO approved by the state or federal government to offer services in Texas, not just those alread…
Did a Texas county have to use competitive bidding when it obtained federal surplus property through the Texas Surplus Property Agency?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that a county could accept federal surplus property and pay the Texas Surplus Property Agency's authorized service and handling charges without competitive bidding becau…
Could individual Texas county departments buy their own office supplies without counting other departments' purchases toward the bidding threshold?
A county department could buy its own supplies only with commissioners court approval and subject to the County Purchasing Act. The 1987 opinion concluded that the $5,000 competitive-bidding threshold…
Did Arkansas's three-percent highway-contractor preference require an Arkansas bidder to underbid Texas contractors on a Texas highway project?
No. Arkansas's preference depended on prior Arkansas contracts and tax payments, not solely on residency, so it did not trigger Texas's reciprocal preference against a nonresident bidder.
Could a Texas housing authority use HUD's Consolidated Supply Program instead of following state competitive-bidding law?
Not when Texas law required competitive bidding. The housing authority's federal contract did not exempt Consolidated Supply Program purchases from state bidding rules, though the federal program coul…
Is Texas's reciprocal-preference law that penalizes out-of-state bidders on public contracts constitutional?
Yes. JM-616 concluded article 601g is constitutional. Because the state acts as a market participant when it spends public funds, the reciprocal bidding preference does not violate the Commerce Clause…
Can a Texas municipal housing authority buy supplies through a federal HUD program instead of taking competitive bids?
No. JM-573 concluded that Texas housing authorities, as divisions of cities, must follow the state competitive bidding statutes. Buying through HUD's Consolidated Supply Program does not satisfy those…
Could a Texas county require performance, payment, and bid bonds on every public works contract under the law in 1986?
Not under JM-505's 1986 analysis. It concluded that a county could not require performance or payment bonds on public works contracts of $25,000 or less, although it could usually require bid security…
Was a Texas county's janitorial-services contract exempt from competitive bidding as a personal-services contract?
It depended on the contract. JM-486 said the exemption applied if a specific individual had to perform the janitorial work, but not if a person or company merely had to supply workers to do it.
How did Texas's nonresident-bidder reciprocity rule affect highway contracts, and could an out-of-state bidder lower its bid after opening?
JM-484 said the reciprocity statute created a limited exception to the highway law's lowest-bidder rule for state and locally funded projects. It did not permit post-opening negotiations or bid adjust…
Could the Texas engineering board require public agencies to choose an engineer before discussing the proposed fee?
No. JM-457 concluded that the board lacked authority to impose a federal-style two-step selection process and that the proposed rule conflicted with Texas law requiring competence, qualifications, and…
Could a Texas deputy sheriff own an auto garage that repaired county patrol vehicles during his off-duty hours?
Article 988b did not prohibit it because the deputy had no authority to vote on or make the county repair contract. JM-450 cautioned that county purchasing and competitive-bidding requirements could s…
Could Texas counties, cities, hospital districts, and school districts buy products or services from disabled-person programs without competitive bidding?
Yes. JM-444 concluded that the specific Human Resources Code exception for purchases from blind or severely disabled persons controlled over the general competitive-bidding statutes for those politica…
Could a Texas county award a janitorial contract to a nonprofit serving blind or severely disabled people without making that nonprofit submit a competitive bid?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the specific Human Resources Code provision controlled over the general County Purchasing Act, so the nonprofit agency did not have to enter the competitive bi…
Did House Bill 1426 let Texas sell the Bexar County property directly to its lessee, or did the state have to use sealed competitive bids?
The state had to use a sealed competitive-bid process. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 1426 did not approve a direct sale to the existing lessee at fair market value; it authorized a sa…
Could a Texas state university hire a construction manager before plans were complete and later use a negotiated guaranteed maximum price instead of competitively bidding the project?
The university could separately hire a consultant before plans were complete, but permanent construction still required sealed competitive bids on adequate specifications. A guaranteed maximum price w…
Could the Tarrant County purchasing agent rewrite or refuse to advertise bid specifications approved by the commissioners court?
No. JM-208 concluded that the purchasing agent could neither rewrite the commissioners court's specifications nor refuse to advertise them, even if the agent believed they were too narrow for competit…
Did every Texas county bid need article 2367's notarized anti-collusion affidavit, and could it be notarized after opening?
No. JM-186 said the affidavit applied only to county printing and stationery bids governed by articles 2358 through 2367. When required, it had to be signed under oath and notarized when submitted and…
Could a Texas agency ask architects and engineers what fee they considered fair without violating the Professional Services Procurement Act?
Yes. JM-155 said the Act barred selecting architects or engineers through competitive bids, but required agencies to consider fair and reasonable prices along with demonstrated competence and qualific…
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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.