Case Information
*1 THEATTORNEYGENERAL
OFTEXAS
Hon. Ray Lackey C-ouuty Auditor Opinion MO. V-200 Re: Construction of Sec.
Yoakum county la of Article 2350, V . Plains, Texas
C.S.
D4ar Sir:
Your letter requesting an opinion of this De- partment on the above subject matter is as follows: “I w4uld like an opinion from your
office on Article 2350, Sec. la., as to
who is entltled to receive the eompensr-
tion and would the olerk of the court be in this law.”
included House Bill No, 84, Ch. 204, Acts 49th Legis- lature, 1945, p* 280, provides as follows:
“section 1. That Article 2350, Title [44] of the Revised Civil Statutes of the
State of Texas, 1925, as amended by Acts
of the Thirty-uinth Legislature, Regular
Sesa$on, Chapter 135, Section 1; and as
amended by Acts of the Fortieth Legisla-
ture, page 435, Chapter WJ,,Sectlon 1;
and as amended by the Acts of the Fortieth Le islature, First Called Session, page
138 Chapter 46 Section 1; and as amended by Acts of the forty-thLCd Legi81ature, Regular Session, Chapter 216; and as a-
mended by bets of the Forty-third Le islr- ture, First Called Session, Chapter 8 3,
page 220; and as amaaded by Act@, Forty-
fou.rth LegWlature, Regular Set&en, Chap ter 362; be; and the same is hereby amended so ae to hereafter read as follows:
““Article 2350.
tr(In counties having the follewJ.ng assessed valuatiom, rcspectivsly, as 8h4Wia
- - Men, Ray Lackey - Page 2
b7 the total assessed valuations of all
properties certified by the county asbitts- sor and approved by the Comaissioners
Court, for county purposes, for the pre- vious year, from time to time, the County Corrariasloaera of such counties shall each receive annwl salaries not to exceed the (uounts herein specified, said salaries
to be paid in equal monthly insthlments,
at least one-half (11, and not exceedin (3/4), out of the Road an d
three-fourths Bridge Fund, and the remainder out of the General Fund of the county; said aseesred valuations and salaries applicable thrre-
to being as follows:. . .
4’11~ counties having en assessed.val- uation of less than Thr4e Million, Five
Hundred Thousand Dollars (#3,500,000) each Comaissioner shall receive Five Dollars
(45) per day for each day served aa Com- missioner and a like amount when acting
as u-off&A0 road superintendent in his providing in no
Cmlmwloner~8 praeinat, event shall his total corn l nsation erceod Twelve Hundred Dollars ($!ZOO) in any one year. Provided further, however, that in counties having National Forest, Preserves and with leas than Four Million ,Five
Hundred Thousand Dollars ($4,506,000) val- uation chat the salaries of said Commis-
sioners shall not exceed Eighteen Hundred Dollars ($1800) per y4arsf
Vet. 2. The salary of each County and each County Judge ray be Comnlssioner paid wholly out of the County General Fund or, at the option of the Commissioners
Court, may be paid out of the County Gen-
,’ ., Hon. Ray Lackey - Page 3 Fumi ~$4 out of the Road and Bridge erel
Fund ia t&a frA.lowSag propartiond: Ceunty
JP e not to exceed seventy-fiwt per cwt % (75/o) of such salaries may be paid out of
the Roerd and Bridge Fred, and the remain-
der out of the General Fund of the County, and aach County COmmissionerle salary may, at the discretion of the Coimzieaieners
Court, all be paid out of the Road and Bridge Fund; prodded this section ahall not apgky except in counties where the
constS,tuticmal limit of twenty-five cents (25,#) on the one Hundred Pol,lar ($100) is lerged for general purposes.
valuation
T3ec. 3. The Comkasionere Court ati
its first regular meeting after the sffeo- dat6 of thts Act md thereafter at
tite the first rd hr nweting of each year
8ha.U b or e?? &uXy made and entered up-
on thk a&%!%~ 09 s&am Court fix the
salaries, of the County Commik.aioners for
such year within the l&Its aa pr~vi&ed
for in & Act.
“S,E. 4. That all general lam, or parts of pnwral lam in conflict w%th tba feregulslh; Act, be, end the mm are
hereby, expressly rope&Led.
wee. $1 ff my action, clause, sentence, m uth,r purt of tMs Act shall
far ax&y rclasea be de&red unco~6tituti.on- a3. that shall not: affect aonstitutixm%Iity of tbha remining prod- in any way the
siens heraaf .
Hon. Ray Lackey - Page 4
be in force from and after it0 passage and it is so enacted." (Underscoring ours!
We quote the following from our Opinion No.
O-6816:
"Therefore, in answer to your seventh question, it Is the opinion of thio Depart- ment that e h comm issioner is entitled to Twenty-five pense in the county for each month pro- *25.00) Dollars traveling ex- + vided, of course, that such trave li ng ex- pense is nec;;sa?y and actually e ended by during said mont while 'R we- c a business in the county.
Koreover,'the Commissi,oners a,re entitled to traveling. expen~sa% ~in,curred while' traveling outside the comtp on caunty busine.ss never to exceed Three Hundred ($300.00) Dollars in any one year as provided by H.B. gl+, (Underscoring ours)
supra." It was fkrther held in our Opinion NO. 0-66&r 'We believe that by the use,of the words 'actual.expenses incurrod while
traveling outside of the county on offi-
cial business', the Legislature meant only the actual and necessary expenses so in-
curred, Gasoline and oil, if a car is used, or bus or train fare and meala and lodging, would seem to come within this
category o We are enc,losing a copy of our Opinion MO, O-5598 isn regard to certain
traveling expenses of County Commissioner8 incurred within: a county,, which defines in general terms thetype of traveling ex-
penses allowed, The.law does not author- ise mileage to be charged for such travel- ing, Neither does it authorize any trav- eling expenses of the County Commissioners incurred on busines.s without the county,
regardless of the nature of the count to be paid from any fund at K er
business,
than the General Fund of the county."
It will be noted from the foregoing that Sec- tion la of Article 2350, above quoted, provided that *5 -, -
Bon. Ray Lackey - We, 5 9400
. “the Comai~~ionera~ Court la authorired to pay the ac- traveling expenses incurred while traveling out- tual, side of the county on official businzs;fnever to e;%&ed ty$& ” in 6ny one year fZ, $300.00 phrase “for each said o rs to t 016 offi- cials mentioned $n the ,preceding paragraph. fhe only officials named ia the ,preoeding paragraph are the coun- ty commissioners and, therefore, it is the opinion of this Department that only county coitW8aioQers are en- t$tled to traveS$ng .,%$@ses provided for in Art. 2350, Sec. la. It bs furthe MW opinion that the clerk of the Comm$,ssionersr Court Is not rntltled to traveling e~penres under Mil Act. County Commt8eionara ati l titled te
the actual 8nd neoeesary traveling expenses incurred while travelingoutside the county on offAcial count business, never to ex-
ceed $300.00 by v rtue 1 of the provisions of Sec. la, Art r 2350, V.C .S., for any one year.
for said official; but the county clerk is not enDit& ,d to traveling under Sec. exp8n6es la, Art. 450, V.C.Si
vary truly yours AlTORm:P GEkiZRAL OF TEXAS SB:dj,m:erc
APPROVED MAY 15; 1947 ."*!$GMwg+