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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Which businesses must follow Texas's extra licensing rules to run a home health agency?
Answering the Texas Department of Health, the Attorney General read the home-health-agency licensing statute (Health and Safety Code section 142.005) broadly. First, the extra application requirements…
When a Texas county redraws its commissioner precincts, do the boundaries of a hospital district tied to those precincts move too?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Hamilton County Hospital District's enabling legislation described its boundaries as coextensive with Hamilton County commissioners precincts 1, 2, and 4. When t…
When does a Texas teacher returning from temporary disability leave have to be put back to work?
The Attorney General concluded that section 13.905(e) of the Education Code required a school district to put a teacher returning from a leave of absence for temporary disability back on active duty n…
Do nonvoting ex officio members count toward a state board's quorum?
The Attorney General concluded that ex officio, nonvoting members of the Texas Board of Licensure for Nursing Home Administrators are not counted in deciding whether a quorum is present. The quorum is…
Can a state require outdoor shooting ranges to be built to National Rifle Association standards?
The Attorney General concluded no, as the statute was then written. Section 756.042 of the Health and Safety Code required the owner of an outdoor shooting range to build and maintain the range to sta…
Are older Texas health spas still exempt from posting a security bond after the 1989 Health Spa Act changes?
The Attorney General concluded no. The 1985 Health Spa Act let an established spa owner open new spas without posting a security bond (a 'grandfather' exemption in former section 10(d)). The 1989 amen…
Does having lobbyists at your firm disqualify you from serving on a Texas state commission with a lobbyist conflict-of-interest rule?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 2.061(d) of the General Services Act, a person who is a member of a firm could still serve as a commissioner of the General Services Commission even if…
How can a Texas county pay for a county elections administrator's office?
The Attorney General concluded that even though the Interlocal Cooperation Act generally lets counties contract with other local governments for shared services, Victoria County had to fund its electi…
Who decides how much a county court reporter in Texas gets paid?
The Attorney General concluded that the Denton County Commissioners Court, not the district judges, sets the salary of official court reporters in the county courts at law. Government Code section 52.…
Can Texas make you arbitrate a dispute instead of going to court?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas general arbitration statute (V.T.C.S. article 224 et seq.) does not violate the 'open courts' provision of the Texas Constitution (article I, section 13).…
Are life insurance cash values fully protected from creditors in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that article 21.22 of the Insurance Code wholly exempted life insurance proceeds and cash values from seizure by creditors, and that this unlimited exemption controlled …
Can a Texas county build its jail somewhere other than the county seat?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Although county jails were traditionally placed at the county seat, a 1989 amendment to section 292.001 of the Local Government Code authorized a commissioners cour…
Is a Texas county auditor's own salary subject to the 5% budget increase cap?
The Attorney General concluded no. Local Government Code section 111.013 capped year-over-year increases in 'the amount budgeted for expenses of the county auditor's office' and in an assistant audito…
Did Texas's boxing admission tax apply to pay-per-view fees cable subscribers paid to watch fights at home?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the pay-per-view fees cable television subscribers paid to watch a live boxing telecast at home were not 'admission fees' under section 11(b) of the Texas Boxin…
Can the Texas low-level radioactive waste authority base its impact-assistance fund on planning and implementation fees?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the board of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority cannot adopt a rule designating a percentage of its planning and implementation fees for i…
Can a Texas insurance company credit rehabilitation fees against its premium tax?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the fees the State Board of Insurance collects from an insurer it rehabilitates under article 21.28-A of the Insurance Code are not 'examination and evaluation …
Does 'physician' in the Texas Occupational Therapy Title Act include chiropractors?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the word 'physician' in sections 15(b)(6) and 27 of the Occupational Therapy Title Act (V.T.C.S. art. 8851) meant a person licensed to practice medicine by the …
Did the 1991 bingo tax law raise the interest rate on jeopardy tax determinations?
No. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 11 (1991) did not change section 32(b) of the Bingo Enabling Act, so the interest rate on a jeopardy tax determination under that section stayed at t…
How many trustees does a Texas school district elect when expanding its board from seven to nine members?
Enough to reach nine, not a fixed six. The Attorney General construed Education Code section 23.023(h), which converts a large school district's board from seven members to nine. The statute literally…
How is the Texas state solid waste disposal fee calculated at a landfill?
By comparing two numbers, not three. The Attorney General read Health and Safety Code section 361.013(a) to mean a landfill charges the greater of a weight-based fee or a volume-based fee, not the gre…
Does a registered manufactured-housing installer need a Railroad Commission certificate to haul the home?
No, the Attorney General concluded. An installer who holds a valid certificate of registration under the Texas Manufactured Housing Standards Act (article 5221f) is exempt from the certificate-of-conv…
Can a Texas county commissioners court hire its own staff attorneys to advise individual commissioners or the sheriff instead of using the county attorney?
No, not on its own. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Harris County Commissioners Court could not create staff-attorney positions for individual commissioners or the sheriff…
Which telephone companies have to pay the Texas PURA gross receipts assessment, and do long-distance carriers owe it on the access charges they pay local phone companies?
The section 78 assessment applies to every public utility under the Public Utility Commission's jurisdiction, which after 1987 includes all long-distance (interexchange) carriers, not just those the P…
Can a Texas resident use the alternative court reporter certification route, or is it only for people moving in from other states?
A Texas resident can use it. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 52.021(e) of the Government Code, which lets a person become a certified shorthand (court) reporter by pas…
Does the Fayette County attorney get paid like a district attorney under Texas law?
No. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the county attorney of Fayette County is not entitled to be compensated as a prosecutor under section 46.003 of the Government Code. Even t…
Do Texas jail standards apply to a city jail that a private company runs under contract?
Yes. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the minimum jail standards adopted by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards apply to a jail that a private vendor operates for a municipa…
Do all Texas gasoline distributors pay the fees under House Bill 504, or only those selling ethanol or methanol blends?
It depends on which fee. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General read House Bill 504 (article 8614, V.T.C.S.) to authorize two fees. The general fee in section 9(b), for testing, inspection, forms, …
Does the State Funds Reform Act apply to fees collected by the Texas Board of Medical Examiners?
In this 1990 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the State Funds Reform Act did not apply to fees collected by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners. An exemption for agencies that were …
If a boarding home is registered with a local mental health authority in Texas, does that automatically exempt it from Texas Department of Health licensing as a personal care home?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded that merely being registered under the mental health boarding home statute does not, by itself, bring a facility within the Health an…
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 the trustees of a Texas municipal firefighters' pension fund enter into securities lending agreements with a corporate borrower?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded that securities lending agreements are not among the investments the fund's governing statute authorizes, since they are contractual …
If a Texas county can't mail a property tax bill because it doesn't know the owner's address, does the tax ever become delinquent?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that section 31.04 of the Tax Code, which postpones the delinquency date when a bill is mailed late, only applies when a bill can be mailed at all. When no bill can…
Can the public get records of a state investigation into abuse or neglect at a licensed drug treatment center in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded no. Records made by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse during its investigation of alleged abuse or neglect at a licensed drug treatment facility were confid…
Can a Texas public school hold a raffle to raise money, or does that have to be done through the PTA?
The Attorney General concluded that an independent school district is not authorized to organize or conduct a raffle under the Charitable Raffle Enabling Act, because the constitutional provision and …
Can a Texas state agency hire the relative of a board member who oversees the agency, or does the nepotism law block it?
The Attorney General concluded the Texas Department of Banking could hire the son of a Finance Commission member as a hearings officer, because the nepotism statute only applies when the relative's go…
Did Texas need to pass a new law before extending Medicaid coverage to more young children under a new federal requirement?
The Attorney General concluded no. Existing Human Resources Code provisions already gave the Department of Human Services broad authority to provide medical assistance required by federal law as a con…
Can a Texas sheriff charge an inmate $20 just to file a bail bond for release?
The Attorney General concluded no. The only $20 personal-bond fee in the law was one a court could assess when it released a defendant on the recommendation of a personal bond office, and the only fee…
If a Texas banking-disclosure exception still uses the word 'bank' after a 1989 law expanded the statute, does the exception cover savings and loan associations too?
The Attorney General concluded no. Even though a 1989 amendment expanded most of article 342-705 of the Texas Banking Code to cover 'financial institutions' generally, including savings and loan assoc…
When a Texas law required one state agency to sell land to another, did the seller keep the mineral rights unless the law said so?
The Attorney General concluded no. Senate Bill 52's directive that the Department of Corrections and the Board of Mental Health and Mental Retardation "shall sell" certain tracts of state-owned land t…
Does every tow truck in Texas have to be registered, even ones not used for hire?
The acting director of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation asked whether a 1989 amendment removing the words 'for compensation' from the tow truck registration statute meant all tow truck…
Under the 1989 Texas law creating the Child Care Development Board, can the state build a brand-new building just to house a child care center for state employees, and can it lease that space to a child care provider for less than what the space would normally rent for?
The Attorney General concluded the state cannot build a new building solely to house a child care facility; the law only lets child care space be included when the state is already constructing or ren…
Can a single Texas county commissioner, acting alone as the ex officio road commissioner for his precinct, accept a donation of gravel or equipment for road repairs, or donate his own materials, without getting the whole commissioners court to approve it first?
No. The Attorney General concluded that only the commissioners court as a whole, not an individual commissioner acting as ex officio road commissioner, can accept donations of material to maintain cou…
Did the Texas Legislature need a two-thirds vote in each house to legally create Central Texas University (now part of Texas A&M University-Central Texas) in 1989, or was a regular majority vote enough?
A regular majority vote was enough. The Attorney General concluded that the two-thirds-vote language in article VII, section 17(c) of the Texas Constitution sets a standard for whether a newly created…
If a private company runs a county jail under contract, do the guards it employs have to be certified by the state, or does that requirement only apply to jailers the sheriff directly employs?
The Attorney General concluded that jailers employed by a private vendor under contract with a county aren't "county jailers" in the strict statutory sense, since that term applies only to people the …
Can the Texas Legislature use a budget rider (a clause tucked into the state appropriations bill) to expand which university employees are eligible for the optional retirement program, when a separate Government Code statute already sets narrower eligibility rules?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the rider conflicts with and attempts to amend section 830.101 of the Government Code, making it a matter of general legislation that the one-subject rule for a…
In Orange County, Texas, who has the final say over how much the child support office staff get paid: the juvenile board that runs the office, or the county commissioners court that controls the county budget?
The Attorney General concluded that the Orange County Juvenile Board sets the salaries of its child support office personnel, and the commissioners court's role is limited to ministerially approving t…
If someone served as a Texas constable before 1985, left office, and then came back to the job years later, do they still get the old grandfather exemption from peace officer licensing requirements, or do they now have to get certified like a new officer?
The Attorney General concluded that a break in service ends the grandfather exemption. A constable who served before September 1, 1985, left office, and later returned after a gap does not qualify for…
If the U.S. Department of Education recognizes an accrediting organization for chiropractic schools, does the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners have to accept that organization's accreditation when deciding who is eligible for a Texas chiropractic license?
No. The Attorney General concluded that federal recognition of the Straight Chiropractic Academic Standards Association for certain federal purposes does not by itself require the Texas Board of Chiro…
Could the Texas Industrial Accident Board limit workers' compensation attorney fees to 15% of a claimant's recovery unless the lawyer showed his hours justified more?
The Attorney General concluded no, that rule was invalid. Texas courts consider many factors beyond hours worked in setting a reasonable attorney's fee, such as the case's complexity, the amount at st…
When someone wins or loses an employment discrimination case brought under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, is the standard for who counts as the 'prevailing party' entitled to attorney's fees the same standard used under the federal Title VII law it was modeled on?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that 'prevailing party' in section 7.01(e) of the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act should be construed the same way the U.S. Supreme Court construed that term f…
Can the public get copies of the reports abortion clinics file with the Texas health department, or find out whether a specific clinic is a licensed abortion facility?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Texas Abortion Facility Reporting and Licensing Act makes all information and records the Department of Health holds under that chapter confidential and outside …
Does the pay a Texas district judge gets for serving on a county juvenile board count toward the legislature's cap on the judge's total salary?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Even though House Bill 101 (1989) directly capped only the district judge's combined state-and-county salary, and the juvenile board statute paid a judge separately…
Must a security officer hired by a Texas harbor or port board be armed to be licensed by the state's law enforcement standards commission?
The Attorney General concluded yes, for security officers employed under article 1187f. The Government Code defines a licensable 'public security officer' as an armed officer employed by the state or …
If the legislature gives a Texas district judge a raise mid-year, does the county's court-at-law judge whose pay is tied to it get a raise automatically, and can the county amend an already-adopted budget to pay for it?
The Attorney General concluded that the raise was automatic and took effect on the legislature's effective date, not at the discretion of the commissioners court, because the county court-at-law judge…
Can a Texas county auditor require the tax assessor-collector to file notarized weekly revenue reports?
The Attorney General concluded no, at least in counties with fewer than 190,000 people. Local Government Code sections 112.001 and 114.003 give the auditor authority to require unsworn 'statements' fr…
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…
Can Texas deny an HIV education grant to a group because it lobbies to change drug or sodomy laws, or because gay people serve on its board?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Services Act only let the Department of Health deny a grant to a group that advocates or promotes conduct that itself violates state…
Can the Texas Racing Commission regulate racetracks that don't have pari-mutuel betting, like small independent tracks, using the same authority it has over licensed pari-mutuel tracks?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the statute giving the Racing Commission power over non-pari-mutuel racetracks, V.T.C.S. article 179e-4, hands the commission that authority without any legisla…
If the same name (or the same handwriting) shows up more than once on a petition for a local option liquor election in Texas, does every one of those signatures get thrown out, or just the extra copies?
The Attorney General concluded that every signature in a duplicate set is void, not just the later copies, so a voter can't preserve one valid signature by pointing to which one came first. The opinio…
Does a hospital district's own enabling law or the general Tax Code control what a county tax collector gets paid for collecting the district's taxes?
The Attorney General concluded that the general Tax Code standard controlled. Even though the Reagan County Hospital District's 1977 enabling law set a specific fee formula (up to 2% of collections, c…
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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.