Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

OFFICEOFTHEATTORNEYGENERALOFTEXAS AUSTINI GRO"ERSELLERS ATTORNEY GENERIL Honorable John R. Cravford County Auditor Kaufman Cmuity Kaufman, Terra Gear Sir: 0pln10n lo. O-7066 Rer ,Should the rone,.$&!+lired fmm the sale of a pox?tlofl of' the land belongJLpg to th+ county farm be pMcew \ thd general fund or biwpd ia re'&lrlng of January 26, portion oi the., The question sed Civil Statutes providea: ch county treasurer shall kebp &well-bound book In vhlch he shall register all claim agillnst his county ln the order of pre- sentotloh, and ,if more than one la presented at the saae ti.me.&e shall rsglator them ln tha order of their date. Ha shall pay no such claim or any part thcmoi, nor ahall the same, or any part thereof, be received by any officer ln payment of anj lndcbtedneas to the county, until It has been duly registerad in accordaacs vltb the pro- visions of this title. All claims ln each class shall be paid in the order in which they are reg- istered." Honorable John R. Crawford, page 2 Article 1626 of such Statutes provides: “Claims classified .--Claus against a countr shall be registered In three claasaa, as ,follovs: “1. . , . “2. . , . “3. All the gsneral lndebt4dness of the coun- ty, including f’eading and guarding prisoners, and paupera’ claims.” Article 1627 of such Statutes provides; “Registering claims .--Said treasurer shall an- ter each claim In the register, stating the class to which it belongs, the name of the payee, the amount, tha date of the claim, the data of regls- tretlon, the number of such claim, by vbat author- ity Issued, and for what servlcs the same was Issued, and shall write on the face of the claim its regls- tratlon numbar, the vord, treglst4red,’ tha date of such registration, and shall sign his naa4 offlclallr thereto.’ . Article 1628 of ths Statutes providssr “Classlflcatlon of county funds.--The funds ra- wived by the county treasurer shall be alassed as follows, and shall be appropriated, respectlvsly, to the payment of all claims registered in the first, second and third clas8ea: “1. * . . .~~ “2. . . . “3* All money recelvad, not othervise appropriated herein or by the ccmmlsslonars court.” With reference to the operational debt of the county farm, the lav is vell-settled that all county expenditures lav- fully authorizsd to be made by the county must be paid out of Honorable John R. Crsvford, page 3 the county's General Fuud unless there is san4 law vhich makes such expenditures a charge against a special fund. Carroll v, Williams, 182 9. W. 291 Raxar County V. Mann, 1.57 S. W. (26) 134. Although the county map have In existence a special fund or fana account, ve may presume all claine for vhich the outstanding scrip vas registered to fall within the third-class claims a8 general indebtedness of the county and Bra properly #gIstsFed as claims b4longlng to the third class. The Caumlsalonerst Court la not authorized to allov or give preference to payment of claims out OS order of their proper re lstration. Article 1625 supra, clearly denotes the ordsr in xh Bch varranta dravn against the County T asu Clarke and Courts v. % SSO to County, G s/3. "$i-$j;'$&~;~ V* r'rank1l.n C&r&y, 98 9. W. "t26) 1190. Article 11, Section,2 of the Constitution of Texas pro- vides that the construction of jails, courthouses, brldgos and the establishment of county poor houses, farms, and the laying out, conatructlon, sqd repairing of county reads shall be pro- vided for by general lav. W4 think It 16 axiomatic, as vell as vlthln the Conatltutlonal provisions and statutes of this State, that the acqulrq of a county poor Saxwi, b4lng in the nature of a permanent improvement, should be paid for out of the permanent improvement fund, for ve must presume that when the county pur- chased this land the purchase price vas paid out of the permanent improvemcnt fund of the county, th4 only'county fund out of which It could .have been legally paid. Article XIII, Sac. 9 of the Constltutlon. It is thdrefora the oplnlon of this Department that money from the 8818 of @ portion of the land belonging to the county farm oannot ba uaad in retiring outstanding scrip accumu- lated as an operational debt of th4 county farm, but such money should be placed in the perntansnt Improvement fund of the county. .~, Youra very truly WJRX/JCP