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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Can a Texas hospital district pay dues to join a chamber of commerce or nonprofit, or reimburse an official's membership?
No, the Attorney General concluded. The Dallas County Hospital District is a creature of limited authority, and nothing in chapter 281 of the Health and Safety Code authorizes its board to spend distr…
Can the Texas Legislature reimburse its members for expenses beyond the per diem in the constitution?
Yes, for legislative expenses, the Attorney General concluded. Article III, section 24 of the Texas Constitution sets a member's salary, per diem, and mileage, and bars extra compensation or payment o…
Can a Texas school district use student activity funds to pay college scholarships for graduates?
It can, if two conditions are met. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that activity funds or agency funds that have actually become the school district's property (not funds still own…
Can a Texas county or state agency provide goods or copies before receiving payment without unconstitutionally lending credit?
Yes, under the constitutional analysis adopted in JM-1229. A Texas public body could extend credit when the arrangement served a public purpose and included controls ensuring that public credit remain…
Can the Texas Legislature pass a special appropriation to pay claims the state has no existing legal duty to pay?
No. The Attorney General concluded that two 1989 appropriations meant to pay the unpaid wages and vendor bills of a defunct nonprofit job-training contractor were unconstitutional, because Article III…
Can a Texas seawall commission use its tax funds to build a public beach?
Generally no. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Matagorda County-Palacios Seawall Commission has no authority to spend its funds to construct or create a public beach unless…
Does a Texas county official have to follow a grand jury's recommendation, like one about using a bank night depository?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a grand jury recommendation about the tax assessor-collector's use of a bank's night depository is not binding on that official. A grand ju…
Can a Texas appraisal district put its employees into a private retirement plan and pay for it with district funds?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a county appraisal district is not authorized to contract with a private association to adopt, and contribute district funds to, a private …
Can a Texas state agency pay the professional license fees or occupation taxes for accountants, engineers, and other licensed employees on its staff?
Yes, if the payment is tied to the agency's work. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that article III, section 51 of the Texas Constitution (which bars grants of public money to indiv…
If a Texas county tax office comes up short and it was not the tax collector's fault, how does the collector avoid having to pay it back?
In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General held that there is exactly one way, and it runs through a courtroom. Under section 6.275 of the Tax Code, a county tax assessor-collector is cleared of person…
Can a county's bank depository pledge Fannie Mae mortgage pass-through certificates as collateral for county deposits?
Yes. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that Fannie Mae Guaranteed Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates may be pledged by Dallas County's bank depository as security for county fund dep…
Can a Texas agency advance 'start-up costs' to a private company hired to provide public services?
Yes, with strings attached. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and local community centers could pay start-up costs t…
Can a Texas city, county, or school district invest its public money in a bank-run money market mutual fund?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General concluded no. Even though the Legislature's 1987 Public Funds Investment Act appeared to authorize public bodies to put bond proceeds into 'bank-oriented' mon…
Can a Texas school district use public money to pay a trustee's lawyer when the trustee is personally sued for an intentional tort?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General said it depends, and the call belongs to the school board. A school district may spend public funds to defend a trustee in a private lawsuit, even one allegin…
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…
Can Texas local governments pool their public funds and hand them to a joint agency to invest together?
No. The Attorney General concluded the Interlocal Cooperation Act does not let Texas local governments pool and jointly invest their public funds through a joint agency created under that act. Decidin…
Can a Texas hospital authority spread its deposits across affiliated banks so all funds are FDIC-insured and skip the collateral rules?
No. A hospital authority created by a city under the Hospital Authority Act that picks a depository different from the city's must follow the same municipal-depository rules in Chapter 105 of the Loca…
Can a Texas firefighter pension board run its own office, hire its own administrator and attorney, and control its own records?
Yes, mostly. The Attorney General concluded that the board of trustees of a fire fighters' relief and retirement fund can spend fund money on reasonable administrative expenses, which includes setting…
Can Texas library grant money go to a regional library system that includes private religious school libraries or for-profit libraries?
Only if the system's members are public libraries. The Attorney General concluded that a regional library system can have as members only public libraries, because only a public library can be accredi…
Can a state agency legally pay a private tipster a cut of the money the state recovers because of their information?
Yes, within limits. The Attorney General concluded that a 1987 law letting the Texas Comptroller contract with informants, and pay them up to 5% of what the state actually recovers, does not violate t…
Can a Texas county commissioners court give elected and appointed county officials vacation and sick leave, and pay them for unused leave when they leave office?
Yes, but only if the commissioners court actually authorizes it. The Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court may grant vacation and sick leave (and pay for unused leave) to county and pr…
Could a county reimburse its clerk for an independent audit the clerk hired without prior approval to defend a theft charge?
The county was not already liable because it had made no promise and had not knowingly accepted the audit's benefits. The commissioners court could still choose to ratify and pay for the audit if it c…
When could a Texas county pay a private attorney to represent a sheriff or other county official?
A county could pay for private counsel when commissioners determined in good faith that the official acted within official duties and that a legitimate county interest, not merely a private interest, …
Could a Texas county attorney hire and pay an investigator from the hot check fund without commissioners court approval?
Yes. The 1987 opinion concluded that a county attorney could hire an investigator and set the salary without commissioners court approval when the salary was paid solely from the special hot check fun…
Could Ector County give federal revenue-sharing money to a chamber of commerce to recruit new businesses?
The county could contract with a chamber of commerce for specific business-development services if it received adequate consideration and retained sufficient assurance that the public purpose would be…
Could a Texas school district pay a winning trustee's legal fees in a lawsuit contesting the trustee's election?
No. The election contest concerned the trustee's personal claim to office rather than a legitimate school-district interest, so district funds could not pay the trustee's defense. The board could seek…
Did Texas cities have to fund hospitals created through city hospital authorities for indigent care, and was that requirement constitutional?
Yes. JM-626 concluded that hospitals owned or operated by city-created hospital authorities were public hospitals, that the cities had to provide sufficient indigent-care funding, and that the challen…
Can a Texas city choose a credit union as the depository for its public funds?
No. JM-604 concluded that although a credit union may accept public deposits, the city depository statutes let a city select only a 'banking corporation, association or individual banker,' which does …
Did Texas nonprofit water supply corporations have to open their meetings and records to the public?
Only corporations receiving state financial assistance under the cited Water Code provisions had to follow both the Open Records and Open Meetings Acts. All article 1434a water supply corporations sti…
Can a Texas state university spend state-appropriated funds on land it holds in trust?
Yes, within limits. JM-551 concluded that a state university serving as trustee of a testamentary trust may spend appropriated funds to build permanent improvements on and operate the trust property, …
If a Texas justice of the peace has a cash shortage in his account, can the county forgive it, and can he run out the clock on the county's claim?
No on both. JM-517 concluded a justice of the peace is strictly liable for public money he actually collects, so the commissioners court and county auditor cannot release him from a shortage, and no s…
When the Texas legislature appropriates the proceeds of a state land sale to an agency, does the agency also get to spend the interest that money earns?
No, not automatically. JM-511 concluded that when the legislature appropriated the proceeds of a land sale or lease to the Texas School for the Blind, it appropriated only the sale money itself, not t…
Could a county commissioner use county money, paid staff, or courthouse space to collect donations for foreign earthquake victims?
The commissioner could not use county funds or paid staff for the collection. JM-431 allowed incidental courthouse space and volunteer assistance by county personnel on their own time.
How soon must a Texas county officer hand collected funds to the county treasurer, and what does the deadline mean?
The Texas AG read the 1985 version of article 1709a to require county officers to deposit funds with the county treasurer by the next business day when possible, but they did not violate a clear statu…
Can a state agency put its vending-machine and pay-phone income into an employee fund for flowers and gifts?
No. The Attorney General concluded that vending-machine and pay-phone income from a building occupied by the Texas Rehabilitation Commission is public money that must go into the state treasury, unles…
Could a Texas county keep its road-and-bridge precinct money in local banks that had not been selected as official county depositories?
No. The Attorney General concluded that all county funds, including the road-and-bridge fund, had to be kept in a bank selected under the county-depository statutes. Robertson County could not leave t…
Could Bastrop County maintain a privately owned road that subdivision residents used as their only access to a county road?
No, not on the stated facts. JM-334 found no general county authority to maintain private roads and no public interest in this road through purchase, condemnation, qualifying dedication, or adverse po…
Could Texas let a heavily state-funded private nonprofit use the state telecommunications system to lower its long-distance costs?
No. JM-330 concluded that article 601b, section 10.07, limited access to governmental entities of the listed class, and a private nonprofit did not become such an agency merely by receiving public fun…
Could Nueces County pay a nonprofit to run anti-litter education, organize cleanups, and distribute trash receptacles?
Yes, through a controlled contract rather than an unrestricted grant. JM-324 concluded that the county could pay a nonprofit for litter-abatement work if the agreement secured an adequate return that …
What could a Texas prosecutor pay from an article 53.08 hot-check fund, and did the commissioners court have to approve each expense?
JM-313 concluded that the prosecutor did not need commissioners-court approval and could use the fund for reasonable salaries and expenses of the whole office, not just bad-check work. It barred retro…
Could a Texas city or county spend public money through a local 1986 sesquicentennial committee?
Yes, for reasonable activities serving a valid public purpose and subject to constitutional limits on donations. JM-220 treated local committees as agents of the city or county that created them, not …
Could a Texas state agency use leftover parking-garage construction money to finish the Travis State Office Building?
Yes. JM-214 concluded that a 1984-85 appropriations rider allowed the State Purchasing and General Services Commission to move excess funds from the completed parking-garage project to additional Trav…
Could Sutton County agree to pay half of volunteer firefighters' private electricity bills without limiting the amount or creating a sinking fund?
No. JM-209 concluded that the open-ended, long-term obligation created unconstitutional county debt because the county could not limit the amount and had made no provision for a sinking fund to retire…
Did a Texas water district have to retain 10 percent from construction payments and place the money in an interest-bearing account?
Yes. JM-199 said Water Code section 51.146 required 10 percent retainage until the statutory release point, while article 6252-5b required the retained money to earn interest for the contractor. A sep…
Could a Texas House of Representatives committee accept donations from private organizations?
No. JM-185 concluded that a House committee lacked statutory authority to accept private donations. A general appropriations provision covering gifts already accepted by authorized agencies did not it…
Could a county reimburse a commissioner who personally repaid road-equipment operators for traffic fines they incurred during county road work?
No. JM-170 said the drivers were personally liable for their fines, and the commissioner's voluntary repayments were neither necessary nor legal county expenses.
Could Texas agencies pay a company owned by a legislator when the contract was authorized during that legislator's term?
No. The Attorney General concluded that article III, section 18 made the contract illegal and unenforceable when legislation and appropriations enacted during the legislator's term authorized it, so t…
Did a multi-state athletic conference funded by public universities have to follow Texas open-meetings and open-records laws?
Only in part. JM-116 concluded that the proposed Gulf Star Conference was not covered by the Open Meetings Act, but was covered by the Open Records Act because university payments supplied its general…
Did a Texas county treasurer still have to report directly to the commissioners court when the county also had an auditor?
Yes. JM-109 concluded that the treasurer had to report both to the commissioners court and to the county auditor; the auditor statutes did not impliedly repeal the court-reporting duties.
Could Texas fund telephone devices for the deaf through a surcharge on everyone's phone bills?
No, as drafted. JM-30 concluded House Bill 1002 was an unconstitutional grant of public money to individuals under article III, section 51 and article XVI, section 6 of the Texas Constitution.
Can the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf get state appropriations without the funding restrictions that bind public junior colleges?
Yes. JM-24 concluded the institute is not a 'public junior college,' so the section 130.003 restrictions do not apply. It may receive state appropriations and gifts as long as its board runs it in com…
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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.