April 18, 1990
Honorable Gibson D. (Gib) Lewis Opinion No. JM-1158
Speaker
Texas House of Representatives Re: Whether the purchase of
P. 0. Box 2910 fuel by a company that pro-
Austin, Texas 78769 vides transportation ser-
vices for a school district
is exempt from taxation
(RQ-1807)
Dear Speaker Lewis:
You ask about the proper construction of amended sec-
tion 153.104 of the Tax Code, which exempts public school
districts from the state's motor fuels tax, effective
September 1, 1991. S.B. 417, Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 813,
5 6.16, at 3720 [hereinafter Senate Bill 417l.l Specifical-
ly, YOU ask whether the tax exemption would apply to a
purchase of motor fuel by a private transportation company
if that fuel were used exclusively for the public school
transportation services that that company has contracted to
provide to a school district. You do not specify precisely
what sort of contractual relationship is involved, nor do
you include a copy of any actual contract.
On the basis of attorney general opinions issued pre-
viously that construe a very similar exemption from the
gasoline tax for the federal aovernment on aasoline used
exclusively by it, we conclude--