E ATTORNICY GENENAL
OF TEXAS
Honorable T. M. Trlmble
First Assistant State Superintendent
Department Of Education
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-7035
Re: Whether independent school dis-
trict may pay a county tax as-
sessor-collector 241;
for asses-.
sing and collecting its taxes
and in addition thereto pay
clerical help in his office.
Your request for opinion has been received and oare-
fully considered by this Department. We quote from your re-
quest as fcllcws:
"The Klngsville Independent School District
has recently divorced itself from the City of
Kingsville in order that it may assess and col-
lect its own taxes. Pursuant to this dlvcrce-
ment the school district has recently appcinted
the County Tax Assessor--Collector as Asse:;i~r-
Collector of Taxes for the Kingsvllle Independ-
ent School District.
"The statutory fee does not yield sufficient
remuneration to justify the County Assesscr-Col-
lectcr to do the work. If the County Assesscr-
Collector is paid a straight salary, we interpret
the statute to require a bond double the amount
of the estimated annual collections of taxes.
This makes the bond of sufficient size to be parc-
tically prohibitive. The School Board is oonsid-
ering the question of paying the County Assessor-
Collector the statutory fee of 2% f'crassessing
and collecting, and In addition pay clericai help
in his office 8 salary which together with the
fee will justify the County Assessor and Collector
to do the work.
"This legal question then presents itself-
is the School Board au'horized to pay the County
Assessor-Collector of Taxes the statutory fee, al-d
in addition to employ an? pay for hl!nclerical help?"
Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 2 0 -7035
Section 2 of Rouse Bill 474, Acts of-the 49th Legls-
lature of Texas, 1945, reads as follows:
"Article 2792 (2%2) County or city assessor
and collector for independent district.
"When a majority of the Board of Trustees of
an independent district prefer to have the taxes of
their district assessed and collected by the county
assessor and collector, or by the city assessor and
collector, of an incorporated city or town in the
limits of which the school district, or a part
thereof is located, or collected only by the county
or city tax collector, same may be assessed and
collected, or collected only, as the case may be,
by said ocunty or city officers, as may be determined
by the Board of Trustees of said independent school
district, and turned over to the treasurer of the
independent school district for which such taxes
have been collected. The property of such districts
having their taxes assessed and collected by the
county or city assessor and collector may be as-
sessed at a greater value than that assessed for
CftY, county and State purposes, and in such cases
the city or county tax assessor and collector shall
assess the taxes for said district on separate
assessment blanks furnished by said district and
shall prepare the rolls for said district in ac-
cordance with the assessment values which have been
equallied by a Board of Equalization appointed by
the Board of Trustees for that purpose. If said
taxes are assessed by a special assessor of the
Independent district and are collected only by the
city or county tar collector, the city or county,
tax collector In such cases shall accept the rolls
prepared by the special assessor and approved by the
Board of Trustees as provided in the preceding Ar-
ticle. When the county assessor and collector is
reouired to assess and collect the taxes on Inde-
pendent school districts they shall resnective&
receive one (1) ner cent for assessinn and one
7.1) uer cent for collectinn same; and