Case Information
*1 Honorable D. C. Grew
State Highway Engineer
Texas Highway Department
Austin, Texas Opinion No. O-5329
Dear Mr. Greerr
Res Deparhnental Appropriation Bill of 1943. From what fund shall legisla- tive appropriation for the Texas Defense Guard Workmen’s Compensation be paid? Appropriation for adminis- tration of Certificate of Title Act.
Your letter of July 19, 1943, suhnite the following questions for the opinion of this departmentn
1. Out of what fund is the appropriation for administering Workmen's Corn- pensation Act for the Texas DeEense Guard to be paid, under the provisions of Senate Bill No. 332, Acts Regular Session, 48th Legislature? P
2. How much money has been appropriated by such Bill for the administra- tion~ of the Certificate of Title Division?
First Questionr
The rider involved reads as follows:
"There is hereby appropriated for each year of the Biennium beginning September 1, 1943, and ending August 31, 1945, the sum of Fifty Thousand ($50,000) Dollars for the uses and purposes of; and carrying cut the prc- -&sions of.Senata Bill Ms. 135, Acts of the Regular Session of the 48th Legislature no salaries shall be paid from this appropriation. This ap- prooriation, however, is contingent upon such Bill becoming a. law, and should such Bill not Broome 61 law this appropriation shall be of no force or effect, and no part thereof shall be expended."
Senate Bill No. 135 has already become a law. The difficulty in de- termining from what fund the moneys appropriated shall ccmewises from that part of the Highway appropriation section of the Departmental 14ppropriation bet which reads as follows:
"All revenues, fees, and grants in aid received for credit to the State Highway Fund during the biennium beginning September 1, 1943, together with the balance of such funds on hand at the beginning of each year of *2 Honorable D.C. Greer, page 2 (O-5329)
the biennium, are hereby appropriated for the payment of the specific appropriation herein made for the &ate Highnay Department and the Depar-c- ment of Public Safety, and for the establishment of a eysGf State Highmays and the planning, construction, end ma~intenance thereof as oon- templated and set forth in Chapter 1, Title 116, and Chapter 186, General Lawa of the Regular Session of the Thirty-ninth Legislature, and amendments thereto."
Wa believe that the appropriation for carrying out the provisions of Senate Rill No. 135 till come from the General Fund and not from the State Highway Fund for the following reasonsr
The Aot does not say that all appropriations to the State Sighway Department shall come cut of the State Highway find. but thatsuch fund is ap- propriated "for the payment of specific appropriations heroin made." we - believe that the tear aspeoif'io appropriations" refers only to the 164 item- ized appropriations for different-empioyees and for operating expenses set out in detail in the first part of the Highway Depar+zaent section of the Act. If it were applicable to all appropriations, including the riders, there would have been no ocoasion for the Legislature to have insertedthe word "specific." Such word would have been super'fluous.
Tfe are stsengthened in this interpretation by the fact that there are appended to the 164 itemized expenditures six riders calling for appropria- tions for various purposes and every one of these exaept the rider in questicn specifies from d-mt fund the appropriation shall mme. Four of these set cut that the appropriations are from the State Righvspy Fond; the fifth specifies that it is from the General Revenue Fund. If it had been intended that all appropriations to the State Righwpy Departmentware to ccma cut of the Strte Highway Fund, the use of thesna "specific appropriations" and the specifioa- tion in four separate riders that the appropriations were out of the State Eighway Fund would have been mere surplusage. Under the rule that a statute will be construed to give effeot to all of its parts, we do not feel justified in adopting such a construction.
The purpose of Senate Bill 135, which is to provide workmen's ccmpen- smtion for tho Defense Guard, is SC remote from any duty pertaining to highways that we do not feel justified in reading into the Appropriation Act an intention to put the ontire expense of administering this aid to the Defense Guard upon the State Rtghway Fund. J&though the Guard on oocaaion of violence from within or wJthout,the State would defend the State Highways, yet such defense would ba no different from what it would render to all pncperty within the State, public or private.
Senate Bill 135, itself, carried an appropriation of $15,000 from the General Ravenue Fund to effectuate the Act until August 31, 1943. The fact that the Legislature in creating workmen's oonpenaation for the Defense ruard and in makin& t!,e initial appropriation did not provide that it should come from the Stats iiighxny Fund is evidence, in the absenoe of language tothe con- trary, in the Departmental Appropriation Bill that the funds thee&n appropriated mere to come cut of the General Fund.
Honorable D.C. Greer, Page 3 (O-5329)
Section 1 of the Departmental Appropriation El1 in its opening sentence provides that appropriations therein made are to come out of the General Revenue Fund unless otherwise specified. Said sentence reads as follows:
"Section 1. That the several sums of money herein specified or 80 much thereof as may be necessary, are hereby appropriated out of the moneys in' the State Treasury, not otherwise appropriated in the General Revenue Fund or Spatial Funds as may be shown, for the support and maintance of the several departments and agencies of the State Government, for the M-year period beginning September 1, 1943, and ending August 31, 1945." Second Question:
The riders appended to the appropriation for the State Highway Department, made by Senate Bill No. 332, include the following: "All revenues, fees, and grants in aid received for credit tothe State High- say Fund during the biennimn beginning September 1, 1943, together with the balance of such funds on hand at the beginning of each year of the biennium, are hereby appropriated for the payment of the specific appropriations here- in made for the State Highway Department and the Department of Public Safety, and for the establislnnent of a system of State highways end ths planning, construction, and maintenance thereof as oontemplated and set forth in Chap- ter 1, Title 116 and Chapter 166, General Laws of the R gular Session of the Thirty-ninth Legislature, and amendments theretoo Fro&dad, however, that an amount not to exceed One Hundred Seventy-five Thousand ($175,000.00) Dollars is hereby appropriated for the Certificate of Title Division.
"There is hereby appropriated under end by virtue of House Bill No. 205, Acts of the Regular Session of the Forty-seventh Legislature, sufficient highway funds to carry out the terms and provisions of said Act, and the State Highway Department is hereby expressly authorized to employ a suffi- cient nlrmber of emplo~fies necessary to carry out the terms and provisions of said Act, but in no event shall salaries be paid in excess of the amount paid for the same or similar positions in any department of the State Govern- ment.e
B the provisions of Section 57 of the Certificate of Title Act, twenty-ffve 25$ cents of each fifty (50$) cents collected from an appli- T 1 cant for a Certificateof Title, or re-issuance thereof, isto be foraarded to theHighway Ds$artment for deposit to the State Highway Fund, and from such fees. the Department, under the provisions of said Section, is entitled to use sufficient money to pay all expenses neoessary to efficiently administer and perform the duties required by the Certificate of Title Law.
The effect of this Section is to require the establishment of a special account within the State Highway Fund. The fees provided are depos- ited to the credit of this speoial account within the Highway Fund, and are dedicated to the payment of the expenses necessary to efficiently administer *4 Honorable D. C. Greer, Page 4 (O-5329)
the Certifioats of Title Law.
The State Highway find proper is a special fund within the State treasury which derives its revenues frommotor vehicle registration fees and gasoline taxes, and is by law set aside specifically for the oonstruoticn and maintenanoa of a system of Stats highways. Vernon's Revisad Civil Stat- utes, Article 6674, Article 6674q-5, Article 6694. The #l75,000.00 appropri- ation is phrased in terms of its proviso. A proviso is oonstived in oonnec- tion with the section or alause with which it forms a part, Its office or fun6ticn is to limit or restrict the meaning of that which has gone before. It is to be given effect, if possibla, according to the clear meaning of the language used. Tidewater Oil Co. v0 Sean, (Civ, Apps.) 148 S.W. (2) 184.
The section of the rider to which the $lT5,000~JC appropriation is appended appropriates all mvenues, fees and grants in aid received for credit to the State Highway Fund, together with the balance on hand in the fund, to purposes whioh do not inolude the expenditure of suoh moncym for the operation of the Certificate of Title Act. The lsnguage of the #175,000.00 appropriation begins with the words "Provided, however, . . ." indioating clearly the legislative intent to impose a limitation or restriction upon that which it had dons in the sentence preceding. The proviso is tc be oonstrued as limiting the authority previously oonferred by the apFopriation of the whole Highway Pund, by providing that #175,000.00 of such fund should be de- voted to purposes not included in the appropriation made by the first sentence, to-wit, to the administration of the Certifioate of Title Act*
The first sentence of this paragraph of the rider can have the legal effect of appropriating only that part of the Highway Furd which is not dedicat- ed by law to purposes other than the purposes for which the appropriation there- in made, for the reason that the terms of existing law may not be changed by an appropriation bill. State V~ Steele, 57 Tex. 203; Linden v. Pinley, 92 Tax. 454; Conley v. Daughters of the Republio, 151 S. Ir. 883; Opinions of the Attorney General, 1916-18, p. 119) 1928-30, p. 209, Letter Book 60, p0 24; 1934-46, p. 46; Opinion NO. O-2573. The appropriation in the first sentenae can not be made out of that part of the Highway Pund which is composed of fees deposited therein, under the terms of Section 67 of the Certificate of Title Act, for such fees ly such Section, though deposited in the Highway Fund, arc dedicated by that Sec- tion to the payment of expenses of administration of the Certificate of Title Act.
Porthe same reason, though the Legislature by the proviso indicated clearly an intent to subject the entire Highway Fund to the payment of the #l76,000.00 appropriated to the Cerbifioateof Title Division, since that portion of~the fund not composed of fees colleoted under Section 57 of the Certificate of Title Act oan not by the appropriation bill bs devoted to the purpose of adminis- tering the Csrtifioate of Title law, the proviso is valid only to appropriate the #175,000.00 from that part of the Hi~hvay Fund composed of fees collected under Sectuon 57 of the Certificate of Title Act.
The result is that we have two appropriations for the Certificate of Title Division PrQn Certificate of Title fees in the Highmay Funds *5 Hon. D. C. Greer, Page 5 (O-532.9)
1. The proviso limiting the appropriation to $175,000,00.
2. The paragraph following the proviso, which authorizes expenditure of suf- ficient Certifioate of Title fees out of the Highway Fund to administer the Aot.
Since there is a direot conflict between these two provisions, which can not be resolved by the applioation of any other rule of statutory construction, we must apply the rule that in case of conflict between pro- visions of the same enactment, the provision last in point of position in the Act controls, on the theory that it is the latest expression of the leg- islative will. Stevens v, State, 159 S.W. 505. ?Ws the proviso is super- seded by the paragraph succeeding it.
It has been suggested that the fonflict is to be resolved by re- garding the,proviso as an appropriation from the General Fund. To this we can not agree. It is not the province of construction to vsry the meaning of unambiguous language in order to avoid conflict between portions of the law. This is legislation -- not interpretation.
During the present fiscal biennium the Legislature has appropriated for the administration of the Certificate of Title law all fees collected and deposited under Section 57 thereof. During the fisoal year 1941-1942, such receipts amount to $342,181.75; the expenditures for the same period, $185,765.15, Down through July 1, 1943, the reaeipts for the fiscal year 1942-1943 were h53.617.75; the expenditures, #87,544.47. The balance currently on hand in the Certificate of Title fee account is approximately $270,000.00. It is a matter of common knowledge that the heaviest burden involved in the administration of the Certificate of Title law -- the original registration of titles on all nuto- mobiles in this State -- has bean practically discharged, andthat the wrk is now settling down to that involved in the routine transfer of titles, Since the burden of work in the administration of the Act will be much less than that involved in the first years following its enactment, it is unreasonable to im- pute to the Legislature an intent to appropriate $175,000e00 in addition to all fees collected and deposited under Section 57 of the Act.
J"& ansmr your first question that the $50,000.00 appropriated for administering Senate Bill No* 135, Acts of the 48th Legislature, Regular Session, is an appropriation from the General Revenue Fund.
We answer your second question that there is appropriated by Senate Bill 332, for the ensuing 'biennia, for the administration of the Certificate of Title Act all fees collected under Section 57 thesof, that this is the only appro- priation made for the administration of the Certificate of Title Law. Very truly yours
APPROVED AUG 5, 1943 ~~~~~Is~~~S ATTORNEY GENh'RAL OFT- 4TTORNEY GENERAL By /s/ R.W. Fairchild
RW-MR$egw
R.W. Fairchild Assistant