Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS AUSTIN Honorable T. D. Sansing County Attorney Hansford.County s* zuman, Texas Dear Sir': Opinion No. O-7415 Are trucks o Xe are in receipt of your wherein you request an opinion 0 to tho above captioned questi “The Federal Gove trucks to tha t; ion Conser- vation District and for its ex district mad vehicles as ment has tak not come und t will entitle e letter from and the appli- the district. You have not stated in your oninion request whether the vehicles in question.sreto be operated upon the public highways of Texas or not, but, for the purpose of this opinion, we are pre- suming that they are to be so used. Article 6675a-2, V.A.C.S., provides in Dart as fol101.s: "Every owner of a motor vehicle, trailer or oeni-trailerused or to be used upon the public highmyo of thio :Itatesh:illn:;,:,J.y each -yearto the SQlLe Hi&way I~epurtnlcn.~ i;!umr,hthe Cw1ty Tax Collector of the county in which he rosidos for the IW&tI'ation Of CclCh SUCh VC?hiCle OwlCd a* controZ].cd by kdm for the ensuing or current calendar year or I:n- erpirod portion ti?oreof;.. .!I Article G675a-3,v.i..c.i)., providea in part ns follows: '1.. + .Owners of notor vehicles, triloro and se:~L-trai1erswhich are the property of, snd used osclusivolyin the service of the i'nitedStates gov- erment, State of Tems, or cny comty , city or school district thereof, shall ap$.y annual.l.y to register all such vehicles but shall not be required to pay the registration1eos herein presoribcd. . .n The IiansfordCounty Yind Erosion ConservationDistrict was orgmieed under Article l&a-2, V.A.CL?., an'd. such Article pmti&s that districts created under the i.ctshall be go-vwmontal ngoncies and bodies politic and wm prcsum that the eppliccitlon for c:&npt re~;istration is bacod on the proposition submitted by such di.st.ri.ct that bcinz a ::ovcrmentalagency, it is e;ieaptfrom taxation. HOW- ever, the fee provided Sor in the re$stration statute is not a tz0z but is a license fee for the -privilegeof ol>eruting motor vehicles upon the public highways of this Stato. Atkins v. state IIi&ray Depmtment, 201 3, ;i4226.(mik of error refused.) Article 6675~2, eupra, is FLU.inclusive oriddoes cot n&e any Tovision to exenpt vehicles owned by political subdivisions of the state. Article 6675a-3, suprn exeqts from the pqment of re;;istrationSees certain ~;ov*rrment~a&encios specificallytherein mentioned. It is cla.arfrom the wording of the two above mentioned statutes tk&t t&o Logielature han provided that all.o-err; of motor vehicle5 which are operatedupon tho public highways of this state shall pay the,lPcensefoes provided except those which are epecifi- tally enumertied in Article 6675~1-3,and the rules of statutory con- structionwill not perm4.tus to ez&end the exenptioneto political subdivisionsof this FItato~!hichare not specificallymentioned in saitiArticle 6675a-3. ;;ak.vc previouslyheld in 0~in.3.0~1 80. 0-26Cl9'thattihe Doxar-i.;edina-AtaocosaCounties Xater knrovement District Do. 1 is not exempt, fmn the paymnt of motor voki,clcfees,enc? we erc en- closing a copy of such opinion for your irGcormation. _--- .