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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How must a Texas county account for and spend the excess court-cost contributions the state returns to it under Government Code 26.008?
A county auditor asked whether Government Code section 26.008 requires a separate fund and budget for the excess court-cost contributions the state comptroller returns to the county each year, what th…
Is the 1838 Live Oak Treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Lipan Apaches still a binding agreement?
A state senator asked whether the 1838 Live Oak Treaty, signed by the Lipan Apaches and the Republic of Texas, is still binding. The Attorney General concluded it likely is not. After Texas joined the…
Do the Texas Recreational Use Statute's liability limits for cities and counties apply to bike facilities, or only skating areas?
A state representative asked whether two subsections of the Texas Recreational Use Statute (Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 75.002, subsections (f) and (g)) applied to a state, county, or cit…
Can a Texas water district director who owns a real estate, development, or construction business have a conflict of interest?
The board of the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District asked whether directors who own (or whose close relatives own) real estate, property-development, or construction businesses ha…
Can a Texas justice of the peace use a standing pool of volunteers to fill juries when summoned jurors don't show up?
A district attorney asked whether a justice of the peace could set up a standing pool of qualified volunteers for jury duty, after only four of seventy-five summoned citizens showed up for a recent ju…
Can a Texas bar or restaurant with a liquor license legally host a Texas Hold'em poker tournament?
An Ector County district attorney asked whether a business with an on-premises alcoholic beverage permit could host a Texas Hold'em poker tournament under two setups. The Attorney General drew a line …
If a board member has to abstain over a conflict of interest, can they still sit in on the closed meeting about it?
A state senator asked, in connection with a groundwater conservation district, how conflict-of-interest law and the Open Meetings Act apply to a water board whose member also ran a company seeking a p…
Do lawn sprinkler and landscape lighting installers in Texas need a criminal background check?
A county attorney asked whether the background-check requirement that Texas imposes on 'in-home service companies' and 'residential delivery companies' (Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 145) a…
Can a Texas county put its criminal-fine collections under the county treasurer instead of the county clerk?
A county attorney asked whether the commissioners court could create a collections department, staffed by the county treasurer's deputies acting as cashiers, to collect criminal fines, costs, and fees…
Does federal law override Texas's law that fines railroads for blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes?
A group of Texas county and district attorneys asked whether federal law overrides section 471.007 of the Transportation Code, which makes it a misdemeanor (a fine of $100 to $300) for a railway compa…
How much can a Texas court clerk charge to file a nondisclosure petition after deferred adjudication?
The Office of Court Administration asked the Attorney General two things: what fee a court clerk could charge to file a petition for an order of nondisclosure (a petition that seals certain criminal r…
Can a Texas sheriff take money from a jail inmate's commissary account to pay for damage they caused?
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards asked whether a county sheriff may deduct the cost of damage to jail property from the commissary (trust) account of a prisoner who has been found liable for tha…
Can a Texas county sheriff also serve on the school board of a district in the same county?
State Representative Dennis Bonnen asked whether the Sheriff of Chambers County could also serve as a trustee of the East Chambers Independent School District, which sits in the same county. The Attor…
Does the Texas Insurance Code apply to a county's self-funded employee health plan?
The Harris County Attorney asked whether the county's self-funded employee medical plan (set up under Local Government Code section 157.101, administered by a third party) is governed by the Texas Ins…
Can Texas officials get around the Open Meetings Act by discussing business in small groups instead of a full quorum?
A district attorney asked the Attorney General to interpret section 551.143 of the Open Meetings Act, which makes it a crime for members of a governmental body to knowingly conspire to circumvent the …
When a Texas police officer returns from military leave, can the officers who moved up be returned to their old ranks?
State Senator Troy Fraser asked, for the City of League City, what happens to a chain of police promotions once an officer comes back from military leave. A lieutenant deployed to Afghanistan on milit…
Can Texas's Treasury Trust Company accept cash as collateral in a repurchase agreement?
The Texas Comptroller asked whether the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, which invests state funds and the TexPool local-government investment pool, may enter into repurchase agreements (shor…
Can the Texas Lottery Commission sell its promotional merchandise to the public?
The Texas Lottery Commission hands out branded promotional goods (koozies, T-shirts, scratch-off coins, ornaments, towels, sports bags) to lottery players and retailers, and it asked whether it could …
Can a Texas county official suspend an employee with pay?
A Brooks County official (the sheriff, who also served as tax assessor-collector) suspended a deputy with pay after the deputy was indicted, even though the office had no written policy on paid suspen…
Can a Texas school district build on leased private land and lease out its unused land?
The Port Neches-Groves ISD wanted a 50-year (renewable to 100-year) deal with Huntsman Petrochemicals: lease Huntsman's land for $1 a year to build schools on it, and in return let Huntsman use a trac…
Can a Texas economic development corporation pay for road or highway construction near its industrial park?
The Athens Economic Development Corporation, a 4A corporation funded by city sales-tax money, owns an industrial park reachable only by one farm-to-market road. The Texas Department of Transportation …
Can a Texas county improve and assess costs for a subdivision road that is partly inside a city and partly in its ETJ?
Residents of the Skyview Subdivision in Caldwell County asked the county to bring their road up to county standards, maintain it, and bill the cost to property owners under Transportation Code chapter…
Do public members of a Texas state board or commission get paid a daily per diem for their service?
The Commission on State Emergency Communications, which oversees Texas's 911 system, has five members appointed to represent the general public. Its executive director asked the Attorney General wheth…
Is it constitutional for Texas to make overlapping appraisal districts tax a property at the lowest appraised value?
When a property sits in two or more appraisal districts at once (which happens when a taxing unit crosses county lines), Tax Code section 6.025(d) tells the chief appraisers, if they cannot agree on a…
Can a towing company appeal a municipal-court magistrate's probable-cause decision after a Texas nonconsent tow hearing?
No. GA-0316 concluded that a municipal-court magistrate's probable-cause determination in a chapter 685 nonconsent tow hearing was final because the legislature had not authorized an appeal. The proce…
Does a Texas city that limits police tow fees have to follow the state tow-fee study law?
Transportation Code section 643.204 says a city that 'regulates' nonconsent tow fees must set up a procedure letting towing companies request a tow-fee study, and must set the allowed fees at fair val…
Does a Texas community college's service area grow when it teaches courses outside its assigned territory?
Texas law assigns each junior (community) college district a fixed 'service area,' a defined territory that matters for things like real-property powers, annexation, and reduced tuition. The Alvin Com…
Can a Texas county force a justice of the peace to use the county's collection company for unpaid court fines?
Brazoria County's commissioners court hired a private attorney to collect overdue justice-court fines, fees, and costs (with a 30% collection fee under Code of Criminal Procedure article 103.0031), an…
Does working as a prosecutor in another state count toward a Texas assistant prosecutor's longevity pay?
No. The opinion concluded that time spent working as an assistant prosecutor for a district attorney's office in another state does not count toward the four years of lifetime service credit Texas Gov…
Can a Texas appraisal review board schedule a property tax protest hearing before the property owner has filed a written protest?
No. The opinion concluded that an appraisal review board has no authority to schedule a hearing on a property tax appraisal protest, or to notify the property owner of a hearing date, until the proper…
Does a Texas funeral home need a signed cremation authorization form if the deceased already chose cremation in a prepaid funeral contract?
No. The opinion concluded that when a person who bought a prepaid funeral contract already specified in that contract that their remains be cremated, the funeral establishment does not also need a sep…
Does federal securities law stop the Texas Comptroller from selling unclaimed, unregistered stock at public sale?
No, generally. The opinion concluded that the Texas Comptroller is not acting as a securities 'underwriter' under federal law when she sells unclaimed, unregistered shares of stock that have escheated…
Can a Texas commissioners court take a vehicle away from one county office and give it to another department?
Yes, with a limit. The opinion concluded a commissioners court may adopt a county budget that reallocates a county vehicle, like one previously assigned to the district attorney's office, to a differe…
Can someone serve as both a Texas school district trustee and a director of an improvement district that covers the same area?
No. The opinion concluded that, because the East Montgomery County Improvement District's boundaries match the New Caney Independent School District's, and both bodies retain meaningful authority to t…
Does a Texas deputy constable automatically lose their job if indicted for a felony?
No. The opinion concluded that, unlike a deputy sheriff (whose appointment is automatically revoked by statute on indictment for a felony), Local Government Code sections 85.003 and 86.011 do not auto…
Can a Texas city pay a private developer from a tax increment fund for work that wasn't competitively bid?
Only in limited circumstances. The opinion concluded a tax increment fund is a 'municipal fund' under Local Government Code chapter 252, so chapter 252's competitive bidding rules can apply to it. If …
Can a Texas city give a new tax abatement for equipment added to a site that already got a 10-year abatement?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. A prior ten-year tax abatement on specific business personal property did not bar a municipality from separately abating different personal property added later at…
Could a Texas county officer close his office and still pay employees for a day the Governor declared an official day of mourning?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. An elected Texas county officer had authority to close his own office and give employees the day off, as long as the closure served a public purpose, and the count…
Can an out-of-state vendor's contract with a Texas county use another state's law to override Prompt Payment Act late fees?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. A Texas county's implied authority to negotiate contract terms does not extend to a choice-of-law clause that imports another state's law to override or negate chap…
Can a Texas county cremate a deceased pauper's remains instead of burying them?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Health and Safety Code section 694.002 lets a commissioners court dispose of a deceased pauper's remains by donation, cremation, or burial, and section 691.023(b),…
Does a Texas school employee's vacation-time payout count toward Teacher Retirement System pension benefits?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Even if an employment contract labels a payment for accumulated vacation time as salary, Government Code section 822.201 excludes payments for unused vacation from …
Does soliciting bail bond business inside a jail count as a crime of moral turpitude in Texas?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. A bail bond surety convicted of illegally soliciting business inside a police station, jail, or detention facility did not commit a crime of moral turpitude, so the…
Can Texas seize the profits when a death row inmate sells his artwork online?
It depends on facts this opinion did not resolve. The Code of Criminal Procedure lets the state forfeit income from selling property whose value was increased by notoriety from a conviction, but wheth…
Can a Texas city loosen the International Residential Code when it adopts local building code amendments?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Local Government Code section 214.212(c)(1) lets a municipality adopt local amendments to the International Residential Code without limiting those amendments to o…
Can the Texas Commission on Fire Protection pay for a firefighter's room and board while attending training school?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. The Commission's authority to set guidelines for scholarship amounts implicitly lets it treat room and board as an integral part of a Fire Department Emergency Pro…
Can two Texas county road commissioners share one road crew across their precincts?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Under the ex officio road commissioner system, each commissioner's hiring and supervisory authority is limited to his own precinct, so two commissioners cannot join…
Can the Texas Railroad Commission use the Oil Field Cleanup Fund to clean up a commercial waste disposal site?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. The Railroad Commission may use the Oil Field Cleanup Fund to plug abandoned wells, remediate well or lease sites, and even clean up commercial disposal sites not …
Does the Texas Permanent School Fund need a legislative appropriation to cover management fees on mutual funds it invests in?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. When a mutual fund or investment company deducts its management fee straight from the fund's own assets, that fee is part of the investment itself, not an 'expense …
Does the Texas electrical licensing exemption for industrial plants cover contract electricians who aren't direct employees of the plant?
This 2005 opinion declined to say. The AG concluded the exemption's key terms, 'person' and 'private industrial business,' are ambiguous and vague, and whether a specific worker counts as an 'employee…
Does a Texas physician have to report a pregnant patient's illegal drug use as child abuse?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Even though a 2003 law expanded the definition of 'individual' to include an unborn child for wrongful-death and certain criminal statutes, that expanded definition…
Can the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality raise the lead cleanup level at just one contaminated site without changing its statewide rule?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. TCEQ's own rule sets a fixed 500 parts-per-million cleanup standard for lead in residential soil statewide, with no built-in variance, so applying a looser standard…
Can Texas deny a professional or occupational license to someone who refuses to give their social security number for religious reasons?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Requiring a social security number on a license application is a neutral, generally applicable rule tied to child support enforcement, so it does not violate free …
Can a sheriff refuse to accept a bail bond signed by an individual surety's attorney-in-fact instead of the surety personally?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. In a county without a bail bond board, article 17.08(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires a bail bond to be signed personally by the surety, so a sheriff …
Does a Texas-licensed engineer have to place a Texas seal on plans for a project that will be built outside Texas?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion. Section 1001.401 of the Occupations Code requires an engineer's seal on every plan, specification, plat, or report issued under a Texas engineering license, with n…
Can the Texas Racing Commission grant a racetrack license if the county never formally certified its local option election to the Secretary of State on time?
It depends. This 2004 opinion held that some certification to the Secretary of State is mandatory before the Commission may accept or act on a license application, but the specific form of certificati…
Can a Texas medical board deny a license to a joint MD/PhD graduate who passed the required licensing exam a few months after the statutory deadline?
This 2004 opinion concluded yes: the Occupations Code deadline for joint-degree graduates to finish the medical licensing exam is mandatory, not merely directory, so the doctrine of substantial compli…
Who decides whether a Texas navigation district's board members get retirement and medical benefits, the district board or the county commissioners court?
This 2004 opinion concluded the district board itself decides, because the county commissioners court's authority under Water Code section 62.070 covers only monetary pay, while sections 60.011 and 60…
When two Texas appraisal districts overlap and disagree on a property's value, do they have to use the lowest market value, the lowest appraised value, or both?
This 2004 opinion concluded chief appraisers in overlapping districts must enter both the lowest market value and the lowest appraised value on the tax rolls, not just one or the other, whenever the d…
Can the Texas Real Estate Commission make rules requiring a real estate broker to actually negotiate for a client instead of just listing the property?
Yes, this 2004 opinion concluded the Commission could adopt three proposed rules spelling out what counts as negotiating on a client's behalf, because they clarified an existing rule and the Occupatio…
Does a Texas state agency have to get equal employment opportunity training only after the Texas Workforce Commission finds reasonable cause that discrimination happened?
No, this 2004 opinion concluded the training requirement in Labor Code section 21.556(a) is triggered once a complaint is determined to have merit, a lower threshold than a formal reasonable cause fin…
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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.