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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Could a Texas nonprofit biomedical research foundation receive a property-tax exemption, and was satisfying Tax Code section 11.23(h) enough by itself?
Assuming the submitted facts were proved, the Attorney General concluded that the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research fell within Tax Code section 11.23(h) and could meet the Texas Constituti…
How did a Texas 911 district calculate a uniform emergency-service fee when telephone customers paid different base rates?
The district had to apply the same percentage rate to each customer's own telephone base rate, rather than charge everyone the same dollar amount. It also could not deny 911 service to a district tele…
How did federal overtime rules apply in 1987 to Texas Youth Commission employees, including live-in houseparents working a 64-hour week?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that state agencies could use the 1985 federal compensatory-time provisions. Youth Commission workers qualified for the law-enforcement exception only if they m…
What happened when Texas property was sold with a tax certificate that incorrectly said no delinquent taxes were due?
The erroneous certificate extinguished the taxing unit's lien against the property and protected the purchaser. The person who owned the property when the tax was imposed remained personally liable fo…
Who controlled a Texas county's drug-forfeiture special fund, the law-enforcement agency or the commissioners court?
JM-678 concluded in 1987 that the law-enforcement office or agency administered the special fund outside the county treasury, subject to a limited transfer for drug programs. The official Texas AG lan…
Did a Texas county's 1987 tax-rate rollback threshold apply to each fund separately or to the county's total property-tax rate?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the rollback-election threshold applied to the county's total adopted tax rate compared with its total effective tax rate, not separately to each fund's co…
Could a zoning protester count privately owned street or alley land toward the 20 percent area needed to trigger a supermajority city vote?
Yes. Street and alley land owned in fee simple by a protester counted in the land-area calculation even when it was dedicated to the city as a public easement.
Could surplus portions of two tracts deeded to Texas for mental-health facilities be leased, sold, or traded without causing title to revert?
In 1987, the Attorney General declined to decide conclusively whether the two deeds created covenants, conditions, or determinable fees, or whether the State had substantially complied. The opinion in…
Could the Texas comptroller borrow constitutionally dedicated highway money to cover a temporary General Revenue Fund deficit?
No. Article 4344c expressly excluded constitutionally dedicated revenue from interfund transfers, and the Texas Constitution independently barred borrowing or diverting constitutional special funds.
Could the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station contract with a corporation whose parent was half-owned by a Texas A&M regent, if the regent disclosed the interest and abstained?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that Texas A&M's Board of Regents could not approve the proposed research agreement because a regent had a pecuniary interest through the contracting corporatio…
Could residents transfer their neighborhood from Dallas ISD to Richardson ISD without approval from the Dallas school board?
No. Although Education Code section 19.022 created a detachment-and-annexation procedure, section 19.008 required majority approval from the Dallas ISD trustees before any boundary change could take e…
When two 1985 Texas bills created conflicting administrative penalties under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which scheme controlled?
House Bill 1732's penalty scheme controlled in its entirety. The Health Department did not have to combine nonconflicting details line by line from House Bill 2091, though the Board of Health could ad…
Could Texas deny a chiropractor a reciprocal license solely because the chiropractor's home state used basic-science exams instead of required college courses?
Not automatically. Texas could consider its college-course requirements when evaluating reciprocity, but the other state's standards needed to be substantially equivalent rather than identical, and th…
Did Texas impose a rollback tax when land remained in agricultural use but no longer met the intensity standard for open-space appraisal?
No. Section 23.55 imposed the rollback tax only when the land's use changed; losing special-appraisal eligibility while continuing livestock production was not a change in use.
Could the Comptroller certify appropriations for a new biennium when the current biennium was expected to end with a deficit?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that Texas Constitution article III, §§49 and 49a did not expressly forbid carrying an expected deficit into the next fiscal period. The Comptroller nevertheles…
Could the Texas medical board require extra postgraduate training from foreign medical graduates who qualified under section 5.04?
No. The board could not impose the additional training and other requirements authorized by section 3.04(a)(5) on applicants who qualified under section 5.04, but it could apply the general licensing …
Did a Texas food distributor need Railroad Commission authority to deliver federal commodity food without transportation compensation?
No, under the facts presented. A food distributor that was ordinarily a private motor vehicle owner did not become a regulated contract carrier when its state contract provided no compensation for tra…
Could the Texas Anatomical Board send a donated body to a foreign country?
No. The Attorney General concluded that statutory authority to transport a body to 'another state' meant another state within the United States, not a foreign country.
Could Harris County appoint one special judge to run night and weekend detention hearings for all fourteen county criminal courts?
No. The cited statutes allowed appointment of a special judge for an absent judge in an existing court, but did not authorize a single special judge to represent all fourteen courts in a separate jail…
Could an Ector County commissioners court hire outside counsel to handle criminal bond forfeitures?
No general authority allowed the commissioners court to do so. Bond forfeitures remained criminal cases assigned to the county or district attorney, although a judge could appoint an attorney pro tem …
Could the Texas Railroad Commission confiscate abandoned-well equipment to pay a plugging contractor under section 89.085?
No. The Attorney General concluded that section 89.085 was facially unconstitutional because it allowed confiscation and sale without an adequate hearing that satisfied due process.
Could a city with no existing property tax adopt the additional one-half-percent sales and use tax authorized to reduce property taxes?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that a city imposing no ad valorem tax could not adopt the additional one-half-percent sales and use tax authorized by House Bill 79 because that tax was design…
Which Texas farm-product lien, filing, and criminal provisions were preempted by the federal Food Security Act of 1985?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that 7 U.S.C. §1631 preempted Texas Business and Commerce Code §9.307(a) and (d), which exposed farm-product buyers to secured creditors under less favorable no…
How much could a Texas county charge a community-college district for assessing and collecting its property taxes?
For most junior-college districts, the county could charge a reasonable fee no greater than its actual costs. For a joint-county junior-college district, the parties could agree on compensation capped…
Was the federal parent-corporate guarantee for hazardous-waste facility liability a valid and enforceable obligation under Texas law?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that a parent-corporate guarantee tracking the federal form created an enforceable third-party creditor-beneficiary contract under Texas law. A claimant still n…
Could a Texas city require veterinarians to provide lists of owners whose animals received rabies vaccinations despite a confidentiality rule?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a municipal ordinance enacted under the Rabies Control Act took precedence over the veterinary board's general client-confidentiality rule.
When could the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse inspect treatment facilities, and when did another inspection or national hospital accreditation replace its inspection?
In 1987, the Attorney General said the Commission could inspect an alcohol-treatment facility unless another agency had performed an inspection that substantially complied with its requirements. It co…
Did Rusk County still have an elected county school superintendent after the governing statute was repealed?
No. The office ceased to exist when the last elected superintendent's term expired on December 31, 1982; the county judge could perform the remaining statutory duties as ex officio county superintende…
Could the Texas chiropractic board refuse to let a blind applicant take the licensing examination?
No. The board could exclude an otherwise eligible applicant only for reasons listed in the chiropractic licensing statute, and blindness was not one of those reasons.
Could the Texas Air Control Board require an air permit for an incinerator used entirely onsite in a federal Superfund cleanup?
No, if the incinerator was part of a removal or remedial action conducted entirely onsite and selected and carried out under CERCLA section 121. The opinion said federal law displaced the permit requi…
Which conditions gave a person standing to complain of employment discrimination under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, and did perceived impairments count?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the Act's definition was not limited to the listed mental and physical conditions and could include chronic illnesses and contagious diseases. A person dis…
Did a Foreign Service officer automatically keep Texas domicile so a dependent child could pay resident university tuition?
No automatic presumption applied. Unlike active military personnel, a Foreign Service officer living abroad was presumed domiciled where the officer lived, although evidence of an intent to retain Tex…
Did free newspaper and television promotional games using randomly selected bingo-style numbers violate the Texas Bingo Enabling Act, and did federal broadcasting law preempt the state rule?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that an unlicensed game awarding prizes from randomly selected numbers or symbols was illegal under the Bingo Enabling Act unless a statutory exception applied,…
Could Public Utility Commissioners independently sign a stay of a hearing examiner's order, and could the commission privately review allegedly privileged material in a contested case?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the Public Utility Commission had to act as a body in a properly noticed meeting when staying a hearing examiner's interim order; circulating an order for …
Could a Texas home-rule city regulate intracity towing and set towing rates, and could the Railroad Commission do the same?
A home-rule city could regulate intracity towing and set rates so long as its rules did not conflict with state law or violate federal antitrust law. The Railroad Commission lacked statutory authority…
Could the Guadalupe Valley Hospital borrow money for equipment and renovations, and could its board approve the loan without separate city and county action?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the city and county operating an article 4494i joint hospital could borrow for equipment and renovations when repayment from hospital operations was reason…
How did indigent-health-care costs affect a county's 1986 tax rollback threshold, and could the assessor recalculate the effective tax rate after the tax plan took effect?
In 1987, the Attorney General said Hardin County had to include enough in its 1986 tax rate to pay the added costs of the Indigent Health Care and Treatment Act, and that portion was excluded when det…
Could the Texas Polygraph Examiners Board conduct oral licensing examinations privately and withhold reusable questions and answers?
Yes, within the opinion's limits. A session used only to ask and answer questions, without board deliberation, was not a meeting under the Open Meetings Act, and unused or reusable written exam materi…
Could a person who moved without interruption from the Veterans Affairs Commission to the Texas Surplus Property Agency Board keep earning Employees Retirement System service credit?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the Employees Retirement System had to let the board member continue establishing service credit. Although Surplus Property Agency employees were actually …
Did Texas school districts have to give the School for the Blind the names and addresses of visually impaired students' parents?
No statute directly required districts or state agencies to provide those lists. The School for the Blind could request them under the Open Records Act, and the record holder then had to release them …
Did a city have to fund indigent care at a hospital-authority facility created mainly to issue tax-free bonds?
Yes. The hospital was a public hospital under the Indigent Health Care and Treatment Act, and the city that created the authority had to provide sufficient funding despite its earlier statement that i…
Could a school trustee resign briefly, let the board renew her daughter's teaching contract, and then win reelection without violating nepotism law?
Not through a short absence. The board could renew the teacher only after the trustee had resigned and a successor qualified, but the daughter would not gain the one-year exemption if her mother retur…
Could a county attorney who handled only misdemeanors collect statutory fees for felony-grade bad checks and forgeries?
Yes. Article 53.08 authorized county attorneys to collect and process qualifying checks, and that authority was not conditioned on accepting felony complaints or participating in felony prosecutions.
Could one person serve at the same time as a school-board trustee and a city council member inside the same school district?
No, on the overlapping Socorro facts. The common-law incompatibility doctrine barred simultaneous service because the city council had supervisory powers affecting school property and trustee duties.
Did the Harris County Attorney have to advise the sheriff's civil-service commission, and could that office also represent the sheriff before it?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the Harris County Attorney had to give requested written advice to members of the Sheriff's Department Civil Service Commission about official duties and p…
Did interest earned on a Texas prosecutor's hot-check fund stay in that fund or go to county general revenue?
JM-632 concluded that the interest went to the county's general revenue fund rather than remaining in the prosecutor's hot-check fund. JC-0062 later agreed with severing the interest but modified JM-6…
Could the Texas Employees Retirement System let an HMO disregard State Board of Insurance rules or end a dependent's coverage for living outside the HMO service area?
No. JM-631 concluded that ERS could not authorize an HMO to violate insurance-board rules and that a state employee enrolled in an HMO remained entitled to dependent coverage even when the dependent l…
Could out-of-state bank holding companies buy Texas banks without violating the Texas Constitution's ban on foreign corporations exercising banking privileges?
Yes. JM-630 concluded that out-of-state holding companies could own Texas banks because ownership was not the same as operating a bank, but the subsidiary banks had to remain separate and independentl…
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…
Could the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners use appropriated funds to buy liability insurance required to rent a site for a nursing examination?
No. JM-625 concluded that the current appropriations act barred the Board of Nurse Examiners from using appropriated funds to buy liability insurance for the facility rental.
How was Tyler County required to fund a criminal district attorney's office created after the Professional Prosecutors Act's 1979 funding date?
JM-628 concluded that Tyler County had no funding floor based on a 1979 office budget because the criminal district attorney's office did not yet exist. The county instead had to provide the funds nec…
Would Corpus Christi's annexation of the remaining unincorporated part of Nueces County Water Control District No. 4 automatically abolish the district?
No. JM-622 concluded that automatic abolition did not apply because the district had never provided all three listed services, including drainage. Abolition instead required mutual agreement under sec…
Could a Texas health insurer cover some speech and hearing impairments but exclude others because they arose from a birth defect or developmental problem?
No. JM-621 concluded that an insurer could negotiate benefit levels but could not cover only selected speech and hearing problems or exclude impairments based on their cause.
Could the Texas Employment Commission disregard a corporate reorganization as a sham and keep charging the predecessor's unemployment tax rate?
No. JM-620 concluded that the Texas Employment Commission could not label a reorganized or employee-service corporation a subterfuge and impose the predecessor's experience rate; a transfer required t…
Could a Texas home-rule city prohibit drivers from consuming any alcoholic beverage inside a motor vehicle?
No. JM-619 concluded that Alcoholic Beverage Code section 1.06 exclusively governed possession and transportation of alcoholic beverages, preempting a city ordinance that prohibited drivers from consu…
Could a Texas agency select one long-distance carrier for all its offices with a single letter, and did it owe carriers assigned by default?
Yes, one letter was enough if it listed billed telephone numbers or otherwise clearly defined the covered lines. The department was not directly liable to carriers assigned as defaults, though the opi…
Can a Texas district clerk charge a convicted felony defendant the old conviction fees that article 1025 of the Code of Criminal Procedure once allowed?
No. JM-617 concluded article 1025 had already been impliedly repealed back in 1935, so the 1985 formal repeal changed nothing and a county clerk has no authority to collect that fee from defendants.
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…
Could the Texas parole board require a county jail to hold a parolee on a board warrant, and could it contract to reimburse the county?
The board could direct the sheriff to hold the prisoner, and the county could not refuse even without payment. The board lacked statutory authority to contract with the county to reimburse the incarce…
Can a Texas county probation department bar supervisors from joining the same union as the employees they supervise?
No. JM-614 concluded article 5154c, section 4 guarantees every public employee the right to union membership with no exception for supervisors, so a county adult probation department cannot forbid sup…
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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.