EXAS
PRICE DANIEL
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Hon. Dud&a, Brummett :?,.~QplnionNoi V-1499 ,, ~:,,
., “,
(J~y$ &g@&&& y.;g,: I.!;&::(!:::,,;
,,,I,,
‘,,:
Lubbock, &unty :“‘? “’ ,’Re : Authority of tha bo&+rdQf
Lubbock, Texas _(.: dtrectors of an nnd~:lrgraand
water oonservation ci&trlct
to require aesessmtit &ldB
IL’ colJection of ltir tazt@@~by
L,<;*;,
i ., the County Tax Assessor-
Dear Sir: ,I ,.,~ Collector.
You have requeated.an opinion on the follow-
ing question:
:
‘5s the Tax Ass&o&C&eotor of a
county located withih an Underground Water
Conservation District- required to a8sess
and collect taxies ,f’or the District on the
property located within this county?”
&lcle 7880-3c, V.CrS,, under which ,under-
ground water conservation districts are organized, was
enacted in 1949 .as. an add.ltlonal section to Chapter 25,
A&s 3 th Leg.-; R.S+ 1925; ‘p”, 86 (Art. 788Q:l et seq.,,
y,.c>s~,3;.;w,hlch provides for the creation and: admlnlstra-
tlon of water .cont&l and improvement districts. Article
7880-.3c does not contain a ‘sp,eclflc provislon~ as to the
method of assessing and ‘eol’lectlng taxe,s le,Pieh% by under-
ground water conservation districts, b’ut Subdivi-slon B
of this article provides:
“Districts may hereafter be created
for the conservation, preservation, pro-
tection, and recharging and the.preventlon
of waste of the underground water of an
underground water reservolr or subdivision
thereof, def’Xned and designated In acQordance
nrovisions
with the provisions or Subsection C E o?
a? this
Hon. ,.Dudley Brummett, page 2. (V-1499)
., .,,’
Districts shall t be organized~ for any
purposes except those set forth In this
Section 3c." (Emphasis ours.)~
Chapter 25, su ra Is the only statute author-
lzdng the creation of -+-’
wa er c@irol and Improvement dls-.
tricts, and since Its enactment In 195,lt has remained
the baslo statute regulating their operation. Section
54 of Chapter 25 (Art. 7880-54)provides for assesiment
arid’c’&i&flon...of +,xea through an assessor-collector
appointed. b$ the dlsttiict”board of ,d,lrectors. Section
33, aa .amended In 1935 (Art. .7880&33), ‘provfdes, for as-
sessment and collection through county tax assessor- “. :
oollectors pursuant to’,contracts between the district
and the county commissioners’ oourts. These provlsgons
were in effect at the time of the enactment of Article
7880-3~in 1949. Tn $951, the Le islature~passed an
Act (Aots 52nd Leg., 1951,.oh. 21 f , p. 348, oodlfled as
Art. 7880-74a, V.C.S.) which requlres oounty tax asses-
sor-collectors to perform these services for water CQn-
trol and Improvement dlstriots when the dlstrlat board
of direotors adopts a ,resolution to have the dlstrlct
taxes assessed and colleoted In this manner. Article
7880-74a was not enaoted as a formal amendment to Chapter
25, butaunquestlonably It Is germane to the subject
‘matter of Chapter 25 and oould properly have been enacted
as an,.amendy,+n$,thereto. Indeed, the ,effect of t&e 1951
act is to ameiid’the,flormer law relat&ng to water control
and improvement diktrlokby addi& a new prooedure for.
asseesment and collection of the’ir taxelr. Seotl,on, 1 .of
ArtioIe 7880-744provides:
“Instead of prooeeding for the aasess-’
ment, equalization, and oolleotlon of~taxea
” in the manner elsewhere- provided by Statute,
when a majority of,the Board of Deeotors of
a Water, Control and Tmproveaent Dlrtrlot,
which assess all of ita taxer eon an ad
valorem basis, adobbr a resolytlon to have
the ta%es on their DIntriot alrrlrdd and
oolleoted by the County du&orr6~ ,and oolleo-
tor, or by the oity asaerrsor an4 oolleotor
of an lnoorporated olt or tW In trhelimita
of whloh the Water Dls t riot LD looated, same
shall be assessed anQ oolleoted by sald
oounty or olty offloors, 811 luy be deaermined
:
,,,
Ron. Dudley Brummett, page 3 (V-1499)
by the Board of Directors of said Water Dls-
trict, and turned over to the treasurer of
the WaterDlstrict Porwhlch such taxes have
been colle-dted."
As we,have seen , .undergroun,d water conservation
districts must look to provisions relatlng,to assessment
and collection of taxes "as now or hereafter contained
in Chapter 25, . . . as amended" to determine the manner
in'whlbh their taxes may be assessed and collected.
There is no question of the validity of %eference" pro-
. visions of this nature. Trlmmler v. Carlton, 116 Tex.
572, 296,~S.W. lC70,(1927). : The only ~problem Is to
determine what' the LkgLslature in&ended,by the above-
quoted provision. Ifs the Legislature lnt.ended.that
only those future provisions' which were formally enacted
as a part of Chapter 25 were.to apply to underground
water conservation districts, then the provisions of
Article 7880-74a are not available to these districts.
However, In our opinion the Legislature dld'not intend
to make the applicability of future statutes depend on
whether they were enacted as formal amendments of Chapter
25. We think the Legislature intended that future legis-
lation regulating administrative and procedural affairs
.of, water.control-,and Improvement districts which were
organized under Section 25 should likewise be available
to underground water conservation districts "in so far as
applicable to such districts," even though it was not
enacted as a formal amendment bo Chapter 25.
Since Article 7880-74a~provldes for an addi-
tional method of assessment and collecting taxes for
water control and improvement districts, It is our
opinion that it constitutes an amendment to Acts 39th
Leg., R.S. 1925, oh. 25, p. 86, within the meaning of
subdivision B, ~&%icle 7080-3~. Therefore, its provl-
.sions are applicable to under@?o.und water, conservation
districts. hit 1s our further, opinion that when the
governlng~ board,of such district adopts a resolution to
that, effect ,> Article 7880-7&a makeslt the mandatory
duty of the county tax assessor? and collector to assess
and collect taxes for the district,
SUMMARY
The board of directors of ~sn:cundsr~>i-
rgrtnund:~trarv~~~~orC~~~trr~dtfichas the
authority to requ%re.asaess@nt and col-
-
, Hon. Dudley Brummett, page !+ (?-1499)
lectlon oft Its taxes by the cotity.tax,
assessor-collea,tor pursuant to the pro-
vls+ons ,oP Article 7880-i)ta, V.&S.
Yours'vtiry truly.,
APPROVED:
~,~ ',. PRICE~DANIEL
Attorney General
J. C. Davis, Jr.
Cdunty Affairs Division
Mary,K. Wall
Reviewing Assistant
Assistant
: Charles D. Mathews
First Assistant
GR:am