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
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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
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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
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\
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
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