Case Information
*1 GENERAL AS 1.~. ,/ IA/, HonoraM John II. Crudgiagton
Counfy Auditor
Potter County Amarillo, Texan
Dear Sirs Opinion HO. O-6805 Bar uss of th. surplus in the Road and Bridge Fund.
Your request for an opinion from this depw+mmt is as follouss "House Bill 850, listed %n Vernon's Tour Session Lam of the 49th Legisle turo, states that ,any county which does not levy l road and Ekidge tax, and has a surplus an its B. & B. Fund. may use the arurplus as it sees fit. wArticlo 66758 10 provides that all monies reaeived by the county fromthe registration fees on motor vehioles shall be used for the construction and maintenanos of lateral ma&s of the aounty.
"Since Potter County hrs a low mileage of lateral roads it levies no road tax and has an l ooruing youly surplus from the proceeds of fines and reg- istration of motor vehicles.
"Is it within the discretion of t.Wa Cmmiosioners~ Court to we the surplus in its R. & B. Fund under tha prevailing statutes?" Article 6675~4-10, V.A.C.S., is m follows: RApportionment of funds. - On ?donday of eaah week each County Tax Colleotor shall deposit in the County bpository of his county to the credit of the County Road and Bridge F'und an amount equal to one hundred (1%) per oent of net oollectione made hereunder during the promding mek until the amount 80 deposited for the current oalendar year shall Bave reached a total sum of Fifty Thousand (#50,000.00) Dollars
"Thereafter, and until the amount so depotiteq for the year shall have rsach- ed a total of One Eundred Seventy-Five Thousand ($176, 000.00) Dollars, he shall doposit to the aredit of said Pund on Monday of eaoh week an amount equal to fifty (6%) per cant of collections made hereunder during the pro- coding week.
"Thereafter, he shall m&a no further deposits to the credit of said Fund duriag that oalsndar year. All collaotions made during any trek under the provisions of this Aet (Arts. 6675a-1 to 66751-14; P.C. Art. 879a) in ex- oess of the amounts required to be deposited to the arodit of the Rti and *2 Hon. John W. Crudgington, page 2 (O-8805)
Bridge Fund of his county shall be remitted by each County Tax Collector on each Monday of tha succeeding weak to the State Highway Dapartmont together with carbon oopies of each license receipt issued horounder dur- ing the preooding wok. Ha shall also on Monday of each week remit to thm Deprrimant as now provided by law, all transfer fers and chauffeurs' license fees oolloctod by him during the pracoding week, together with carbon copies of all receipts issued for said feea during the week. "He shall also sccompany all remittances to the Highway DqarWnt with a complete report of such collaotions made and disposition made thereof the form and contents of the naid report to be prescribod by the State Highway Department. None of the monies so plaoad to the credit of the Road and Bridge Fund of a county shall be used to pay the salary or ooms pensation of any County Judge or County Commissioner, but all said monies shall be used for the construction and maintenance of lataral roads in such county under the supervision of the County Enginasr, if there ti one, and if there is no such enginsep# then the County Commissioners' Court shall have authority to oomnand the sarvicoo of the Division Engineer of the State Highway Dopartmant for the purpose of supervising the construo- tion and surveying of lateral roads in their rospeotive counties. All funds alloortod to the counties by the provisions of this Act (Arts. 6675~~L to 6675~~14; P. C. Art. 807%) may be used by the counties in the payment of obligations, if any, issued and incurred in the construotion or We im- provement of all roads; including State Highways of euch counties and dia- triots therein; or the improvomant of the roads oamprising the County Road System."
The above mentioned statute expraesly provides how motor registra- tion fees coming into the County shall b, expended. It also provides that suoh feee ba placed in the Road and Bridge Fund of the County.
House Bill 850, 49th Legielaturo, providea as followsa "sm. 1. In all counties of this Stat0 having surplus funds from revenues derived from motor vrhiola registration fee8 which each said county is auth- orized to retain under the laws of the State of To-r, and whnrherm my such county or aounties arm not levying 4 tax for the building and maintenauco of roads and bridger for such county or oounUes, the Conmisoionere' Court of said county or oounties ir helvby authorirod to transfer such aurplua funds to any other county fund or funds which ruoh Court may from time to time designate, and to oxpond such surplus funda for any other UPO or purpose.
"Sec. 2. The fact that rome oountier with large populations have only a rslaikivoly small number of miler of oouuty road* to maintain and are now annually oolleoting and retaining motor registration foer in an aggrogato amount aaveral times aa large a8 Is necessary to sufficiently maintain tb roads and bridgee in rruch countlee orartor an anergonoy and ma imper6tivo public neosrrritiy that the Constitutional Rule reauiriag bills to be read on three #everal dq,v in each Rouro k #uepondod,:and a&id Rule ir hereby *3 Hon. John PI. Crudgington, page 3 (o-6805)
suspended, and that this Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.~
Seotjon 9 of Articl* 8 of our State Constitution prescribe* the mmxI imum rate of taxes for goneral purposes, for road* 6nd bridges, for juries, and for permanent improvements, r*spcotiv*ly. Thi* department ha8 repeatedly held that the Commissioners 1 Court has no authority to transfer money frnm one constf- tutional fund to another, or to expend for on* purpooe, tax money raised ost@nsf- bly for another purpose. Suah ruling8 6r* brs*d on the following authorities: Carroll v. Williams, 202 S.W. 504; Ault v. Hill County, 116 S.W. 359; Henderson v. Bock, 262 S.W. 94; 11 Texas Jurisprudsnoo, p. 609-611.
'1M, quote the following language from Carroll v. Williams, supras “Going to the real gist of the main issue befan us, section 9 of article 8 of out *tat* Constitution, *up=*, inhibits any and all transfers of tax money from one to another of the several 016sses of funds therein authorized, and, as a sequsnos, the expenditure, for one purpose therein defin*d, of tax money raised ost*nlibly for anothor such purpose. The inrmediat* plrpos* in so prescribing a separate maximum tax rat* for each of the ol*soet of purposes there enumerated is, no doubt, to limit, accordingly, the amount of taxen which may be raised from the people, by taxation, declaredly for those ewsral purposes or alataes of purposes, respectively. But that is not all. The ultimate and practical and obvious design and purpore and legal effect is to inhibit oxo*ssive expenditures for agy such purpos- or olass of purposes. By n*c*asaxy implication, said pro- visions of section 9 of article 8 war* d*signed, not mer*ly to limit the tax rat* for certain th*r*in designated purpoae8, but to require 6hat any and all money raised by taxation for any such purpo** *hall be applied, faithfully, to thrt particular purpose, as needed therefor, and not to any other purpos. or 1.181 whatsoever. . . .
"True, the Constitution does not s6y, in so may words, thatmoneyraised by 6 county, oity, or town, by taxation for one such purpose shall nwer be expend- ed for any other purpose -- not wen for another of the five general olanse* of purposes defined and approved in said section 9 -- tit that wu think, le its plain and cortrin muning and legal effect. Th* very definitions of tIloso rworrl cl*ss*a of purpof*s, and the daclarrtion of authority to tax th* pea- pl* therefor, renpediv*ly, aoupled, 68 theyaro, in each instance, with a lim- itation of the tax rate for that alass, must hare ken pr*dioated upon the expectation and intent that, a* a matter of aommon honesty and fair d*aling, fu money taken from the p*opl* ostensibly for any such specified purpos* shall b l xpandad, as n**d*d, for that purpose *lone, a* well 6~ that th* tax rato for that particulrr olrss, in UTy one you, *hall not oxaeed the prescribed IMdlllUUl.
WConversely, and upon a like tours* of reasoning, it must hav* b*rn int*nd*d that *xpenditures for my *uch d*signat*d purpose *hall nw*r inolude tax mon*y in *xc*** of the proceed* of the muimum tax rrt* pr*sorib*d by th* Conrtitution for that purpose-
Eon. John vi. CFztdgington, paga 4 {C-5805]
"Unless our above-stabad oon~~?2usions are &LX%%, thers ms no gcod season for making the constiixtional Stitation upon .'I:h.r~ o&id five seprratte designated tax rates c~pmifics~ the limitation upon t%le taxing p+ww might as well hme been oouched in general terms spp:Paab9.s to all tha designated purposes aol- lsotively, although prawzibing an uggreg&h ~?~simuui tax r&r applicable to any and al.1 such purposes in the di~wetfon of govom-nfng body. In atbar wopds, unless said aonstitutionai prxris.ions were designed tr: @mit the application or expandfturs of each such t&x fund fgl th,v iwpaifio purpose or purposoo fox- whioh, deolaredly, it is r+iead, as wall. ae %;o limf*. the tax rate 'therofo~~ th. s- result in the Vny of protecting the people Igainst exhor'bitant taxes could hava been attained more simply wd mere oonvaniently VJr making, in said section 9 of artiols 8, one general Iim%tation upi,n the ta.xi,ng power with referrnce to a11 five such classes of purposes, collect&sly, ,thereby leaving the governing body frwe to apply any and aPI suoh funda n.Jro?dicg t;s iti~ G%W judgmwt, provided only that no portion thereof sha:LY br applied to ar~r extraneous purposs, not included by the tirms of that ~e?cti~ze"