Your request for opinion has been received and oare- fully considered by this Department. We quote from your re- quest as fcllcws:

"The Klngsville Independent School District has recently divorced itself from the City of Kingsville in order that it may assess and col- lect its own taxes. Pursuant to this dlvcrce- ment the school district has recently appcinted the County Tax Assessor--Collector as Asse:;i~r- Collector of Taxes for the Kingsvllle Independ- ent School District.

"The statutory fee does not yield sufficient remuneration to justify the County Assesscr-Col- lectcr to do the work. If the County Assesscr- Collector is paid a straight salary, we interpret the statute to require a bond double the amount of the estimated annual collections of taxes. This makes the bond of sufficient size to be parc- tically prohibitive. The School Board is oonsid- ering the question of paying the County Assessor- Collector the statutory fee of 2% f'cr assessing and collecting, and In addition pay clericai help in his office 8 salary which together with the fee will justify the County Assessor and Collector to do the work.

"This legal question then presents itself- is the School Board au'horized to pay the County Assessor-Collector of Taxes the statutory fee, al-d in addition to employ an? pay for hl!n clerical help?" *2 Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 2 0 -7035

Section 2 of Rouse Bill 474, Acts of-the 49th Legls- lature of Texas, 1945, reads as follows:

"Article 2792 (2%2) County or city assessor and collector for independent district.

"When a majority of the Board of Trustees of an independent district prefer to have the taxes of their district assessed and collected by the county assessor and collector, or by the city assessor and collector, of an incorporated city or town in the limits of which the school district, or a part thereof is located, or collected only by the county or city tax collector, same may be assessed and collected, or collected only, as the case may be, by said ocunty or city officers, as may be determined by the Board of Trustees of said independent school district, and turned over to the treasurer of the independent school district for which such taxes have been collected. The property of such districts having their taxes assessed and collected by the county or city assessor and collector may be as- sessed at a greater value than that assessed for CftY, county and State purposes, and in such cases the city or county tax assessor and collector shall assess the taxes for said district on separate assessment blanks furnished by said district and shall prepare the rolls for said district in ac- cordance with the assessment values which have been equallied by a Board of Equalization appointed by the Board of Trustees for that purpose. If said taxes are assessed by a special assessor of the Independent district and are collected only by the city or county tar collector, the city or county, tax collector In such cases shall accept the rolls prepared by the special assessor and approved by the Board of Trustees as provided in the preceding Ar- ticle. When the county assessor and collector is reouired to assess and collect the taxes on Inde- pendent school districts they shall resnective& receive one (1) ner cent for assessinn and one 7.1) uer cent for collectinn same; and <hen the

assessor and collector of an incorporated city, or town, as hereinbefore provided, is required to assess and collect the taxes of independent school districts the Board of Trustees of such school district may contract with the governing body of said city~fcr payment for such services as they may see fit to allow, not to exceed four (4) per cent of the whole amount of taxes collected _ and received." (Underscoring curs)

Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 3 O-7035

Under the above-quoted statute and under the facts stated, it is cur cpinicn that the county tax assesscr-ccl- lectcr is entitled to receive as fees for assessing and ccl- letting the school taxes in question, one (1) per cent for assessing and one (1) per cent for collecting same.

We have been unable to find any statutory authority which would authorize Kingsvllle Independent School District to pay the salaries of any clerical help in the County Tax Assessor-Collector's cfflce and we therefore specifically answer that portion of your question in the negative.

Very truly yours ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS By s/wm. J. Fanning Wm. J. Fanning Asslstant WJF/JCP/wc

APPROW FF.B 5, 1946

s/Carlcs C. Ashley

FIRST ASSISTANT

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Approved Opinion Committee By s/BWS Chairman