Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

Honorable John Connally Opinion No. C-54 Governor of Texas.! Austin, Texas Re: Whether House Bill 377 of the 58th 'Legislatureis in compliancewith the pro,- visions of Section 9 of Article IX of the Constl- Dear Governor Connally: tutlon of Texas. Your request for-an opinion reads as follows: ~%nclosed'ls a copy ofRouse Bill 377 which has been passed by the 5- 8th Legisltiture under'the,authority of the recently'ipproVed_ T. Article IX,-Section-9 of the Constitution of Texas. - -"The first paragraph.ofthat Section pro- vide&that such hospital districts shall not be created -'unlessapproved by a majority of the qualified property taxpaying elehtors'there- bf'voting at iinelection called"for the pur- pose'; whereas the last paragraph states that 'In no event may the Legislature provide for' a district to be created nlthout the'afflrma- tlve vote of a majority of the taxpaying voters ,lnthe district concerned.' "Since House Bill 377 provides for cre- ation of the Jasper Hospital District upon a vote of Ia majority of the resident qualified property taxpaying voters voting at said elec- tion,' will you please advise me If this Bill meets all of the requirements of Article IX, Section 9 of the Constitution?" Section 9 of Article IX of the Constitutionof Texas provides: "The Legislaturemay by law provide for the creation, establishment,maintenance and operation of hospital districts composed of one or more counties or all or any part of -267- c -- . -.; -- Hon. John Connally, page 2 (C-54) one br more counties with power to Issue bonds for-the'purchase,construction,ac- quisition, rtipa1.r~ or-renovtitlonof~'build; lngs and Lmprdvefietit8.and equipping same, for hospital purposes; providing for the transfer to the hospital dlkitrlctof the title to-any l&d, bulldlngs,'lmprovements and equipment located whelly ~withlnthe " district which may be~~~jotntly or separately owned by any clty;town dr county, providing that any district so created shall assume full rdsponsibllltyfor providingmedical and hospital care for Its needy Inhabitants and assume the outstandingIndebtednessin- curred by cities, towns and counties for hospital~purposesprior to the creation of the district, If same are located wholly within Its boundarles,~&nda pro rata por- tion of~Buch'lnd~btedries&based upon the thi?n' last-.approveil-tax AsaesstientrollS of the'lndkzdedcltfes, towns and.'cbuntles If less than all the territory thereof~~ls in-- eluded within the district boundaries; pro- viding that after Its creation no other municipality or polStlcal'subdl;vislon shall have the power to levy taxea or.lssui bonds or other obligationsfbr hospital purposes or for providing medical care within the boundaries of the district; providing for the levj'of annual taxes-at a rate not to exceed seventy-fivecents (754) on the one hundred~ddllarvaluatlotiof all taxable property within such district,forthe pur- pose of meeting the requirementsof the dlstrlct8s bonds, the Indebtednessassumed by It and its maintenance and operating ex- p&sea, providing that such district .&all not be created or such tax authorized unless tenance of the district'shospital system shall never become a charge against Or obll- gatlon of the State of Texaa nor shall any direct appropriaklonbe made by the Legis- lature for the construction,maintenance or Improvement of any of the facllltles of such district. "Provided,however, that no district shall be created except by act of the Legislature and -26% Hon. John Connally, page 3+(C-54) : It will be noted by the underlined portions of the above quoted constitutionalprovisions that-the first Paragraph of Section 9 requires approval "by a majority of the qualified property taxpaying electors thereof voting?at an election call- ed -forthat purpose," whiZe~t.helast paragra& of the Section requires an affirmative vote of "a majon.cy of the taxpaying voters in thendistrict concerned.~" In construing the above quoted provisions, It Is our opinion that the.rule.& constructiongoverning the proper ln- terpretationtobe givenSection g:of,Artlcle IX of thenConstir tution of,Texas is.stated:in39 Tex.Jur. 162.et seq., Statutes, Sec. 91, as follows: .: / ,, "An important rule to'be observed In statutory.interpretation1s that an act should be given a fair, rational, reasonable and .' sensible construction,considering Its lan- guage and subject-matter,and with a view to accomplishingthe legislative Intent and pur- pose. In .otherwords, construction should comport with common sense and justice, and irrational conclusions or deductions should be avoided; Contrariwise,according to the terms used~in the decisions,,a statute should not be given a 'forced,' 'fancy,' 'strained,' 'subtle' or 'technical'construction,nor one that Is nonsensical or unreasonable. In the absence of compelling language found in the enactment." The above rule was cited with approval by the Supreme Court of Texas In Wood v. State, 133 Tex.110, 126~S.W.2d 4 (1939). Applying the foregoing principles to Section9 of Article IX of the Constitutionof Texas, It appears that a study of these two paragraphs reveals that whereas the first paragraph provides that such district shall be created only by a majority of the property taxpaying voters voting at an elec- tion, the second paragraph provides that the Legislaturemay not provide for a district to be created without an afflrma- tlve vote of the majority of the taxpaying voters in the dis- trict. A literal application of this latter provision would -269- \ Hon. John Connally, page 4 (C-54) render lrration@l this Section of the Constitution. It is felt that this.Sect$on6f the Conatltutlonis susceptibleof but one ~easo~a~l~.'.~onstructlon; that being, that the creation of the district Is authorized only upon the vote of a majority of the qualified property taxpaying electors voting at atielection. House Bill 377 contains such a provision and~ls expressly enact- ed pursuant to the p?ovlslons of Section 9 of titicle IX of the Con&tution of Texas. You are therefore-advisedthat House Bill 377 meets all the requirementsof Section 9 of Article IX of the Constitutionof Texas. SUMMARY House Bill 377 of the 58th Legislature provides for the creation of the Jasper Hoepl- tal District, upon the vote of a majority of the resident qualified property*%axpaylng: +foterd,-vbeing.at' said election, and is there- fore In compliancewith Section 9 of Article IX of the Conatltutlonof Texas. Yours very truly, WAQGONER CARR Attorney Genera?. JR:ms APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE W. V. Geppert, Chairman Albert Jones Jerry Brock M. K. Wall J. Arthur Sandlln APPROVED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL By: Stanton Stone -27s