Case Information
*1 OFFICE OF ‘YE3 ATTGBNEY GEX~RAL OF TJ3XAS
AUSTIN
Gerald C. Xann
Attorney General
Honorable Weaver Moore, Chairman on State Affaira
committee The Senate
Auatln, Texas
Dear Sir:
0FiniOI.l No. o-3286 herConstltutlonality IX11 X0. iub ‘~Xxemp’cYng pup- erty or Delta Kappa Gamma rmm taxation) Society
You asked the opinion or this department as to Senate Bill No, LO8, pending be- the oonetitutionalltp fore your Comnlttee of the Forty-seventh Legislature. The Ioaption of this Bill, whloh, for the purposes ot thie
opinion, will auffiolently indioate the nature thereof, is a8 r0ih7et
ua BIIL M BE ENTITLED AN ACT exempting iron all City, County, State ad valorem and oocupatlon taxes, offioe headquarter8 build- ings, and lots purchased for the erection of offloe or headquarters buildings, in the State of T xas, propertx owned by the Delta happa ~l~umeSooistp; providing a saving ; and deolaring an energenoy.” Artiole VIII, Seotion 2, of our Constitution, pro- vides In part as follows:
n The Legislature may, by general laws, exempt’fAA taxation pub110 property used for places 0r reliQioua wor- public purposes; aotual ship, also any property owned by a ohuroh or by strkc:ly religious aooisty for the exolueive uee as a dwelling plaoe for the ministry oi suoh ohuroh or religious and which yields soolety, *2 Honorable Waver Moors, Page 2
no revenur whatever to suoh ohuroh or religious soolotyi provided that ruoh exemption shall not extend to more property than Is reasonably neo- esrary for dwelling place ln no event to more than one aore of land1 plaors of burial not held for private or oorporate profit; sll buildings urod rxoluslvely and owned by persons or aasooiatlons of persons for sohool purposes and the neossrary furniture of all rohoole and property used oxolusively and reasonably nroes- sary In oonduotlng any awooiatlon engaged in promoting the religious, eduoationsl and phyai- oal development of boys, girls, young women operating under a state or national young men or organization like oharaoter; also the endow- ment funds of such institutions of learning and religion not used with a view to profit; and In bonds mortgages, when the same are invested or in land or other property which has been and shall hereafter be bought in by euoh’ institu- tions or foreclosure sales made to satlery or proteot such bonds or mortgages, that such ex- emptions of suoh land ald property shall continue only for two years after the purohase of ths same at such sale suoh institutions and no longer, snd Institutions of purely publio ohar- lty; and all laws exempting .property from taxa- tion other than the property above meutloned shall be. null and void. *
It is to be observed that the authority is oon- ferred upon the Logirlature to exempt property from taxa- tion only with respeot to property of the character and devoted to the purposes expliolty mentioned in Artiole VIII, Section 2, of the Constitution, and, by express pro- vision of the Constitution, such exemptions may be con- ferred only by general laws. The Act which you present for our oonsideration sinD$Les out a particular organiza- tion by name, to-wit, the Delta Kappa Canma Sooiety, and attempts to confer upon its property an exemption rr0m taxa- It requires no oitation af authority to establish tion. the proposition that a law which singles out a Tartlcular organization or person by name is a special law, not a general law. For this reason, you are advised that senate Bill No. 108 violates the grovlsions of Article VIII, Section 2, of our Constitution.
.
Honorablr Wsaver Moore, Page S
This opinion Is not to be oonatrusd as an ex- pression thlr department that organizations of thb oharaoter, generally, of the Delta Kappa Gamma Soolety may be, by general law, exempt from taxation under the provisions of Artlole VIII, Seotlon 2 ot the Constitution. By reason oi the dirporltion herelnsbove made Bill No. 108, we find it unneoeesary to express an opln- Ion at this time upon the question of the authority of . the Legislature to exempt from taxation the property of organizations of the type of Delta Kappa Gamma, by general law.
Yours very truly A!ll’ORNEY GFXEXUL OF TEXAS By /s/ R. W. Fairchild 3. W. Falrohild Assistant RWF:I&
‘APPROVED MAR 5, 1941
/a/ Gerald C. Mann
ATTCRWBY GZ?ERALOF TEXAS
APF’ROVXD OPRKtOH CObUITl’EE BY B. C. B. CHAIRUN