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Honorable Toti A, Craven
.County Auditor
McLennan County
Waco, Texas
Dear Sir: n Opinion No. O-5184 ( ..
7 :.R.q:, Amendment of the’county
budget.
Your letter’ of April 3, 1943, requesting the opinton of this dep.art-
ment on certain questions stated therein with reference to an amendment
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of the county budget reads as follows:
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“Article 689a-9 provides, among other things, that a,
county budget shall cover all proposed expenditures of the
county government for the year being budgeted and shall also
contain a complete financial statement of the county and shall
include a statement of the fun~ds available from all sources
during the year budgeted. In compiling any budget covering a
future period of time, it is. of course, necessary to make es-
timates both as to probable expenditures and revenues. Using
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past expertences as a guide, usually a county budget can be rea-
sonably, accurately compiled. The amount of tax collections
is not difficult to estimate correctly but fees of office charged
for services rendered the publiccan not always be as accurately
estimated. The demands for expenditures out of the Officers
Salary Fund of a county are contingent, to a degree, .on the vol-
ume of services rendered the public as reflected in the fee reve-
nues, Article 689a-11 outlines the conditions under which a
county budget may be amended. Would the collection of fees for
the benefit of the Officers Salary Fund in excess of the amount
estimated under the budget, become available for expenditures
beyond those’antic.ipated in the budget but necessary in connec-
tion with the efficient operation of the departments in the Offi-
cers Salary Fund Group ?
Honorable Tom A~. Craven, Page 2, O-5184
?.War conditions have brought about a number of changes
in our business economy-- some of which might have been anti-
cipated several months ago and others which reasonably diligent
thought might have not revealed. Necessary living costs in some
areas have ad,vanced more than might have been expected. This
is particularly true in counties such as McLennan County having
large increases in population due to war activities, Competition
affects labor and salary schedules. This does not necessarily
mean direct competition with governmental and defense agencies
but as the surplus man-power has been cons.umed ~by industry or
otherwise, operations outside those defined as essential to the
war effort must compete for the services of those yet available
for such operations. Because of these conditions, the depart-
mental officials of McLennan County contend they will be unable
to efficiently carry out the duties and functions of their respec-
tive departments during the remainder of 194.3 without an increase
in salary allotments above those set out in the 1943 county budget.
,.
“Would the contention of these departmental officials, if sub- ‘. ..
.- _.., stantiated by them, justify an emergency amendment to the county
budget under the provisions for making such amendments as out-
lined in article 689a- 117 *
On April 13, 1943~. we wrote you requesting certain additional in-
formation relative to your request and in compliance with our request for addi-
tional information on April 21, 1943, you wrote us as follows:
“In reply. to your letter of April 13th asking for additional
information relative to opinion request o-51.84, I shall make a few
general observations followed by more specific information.
“Supplement.ing the information given in paragraph 1 of my
letter of. April 3rd, I wish to add that not only this year but frequently
we have situations arise under which conditions have changed sfnce’
budget making time which require an expansion of operations in a
given office beyond what was anticipated, or could have been antici-
pated, at the time the budget was made, and, in many instances, the
expansion of ope,rations brings in additional revenues. In most of
these instances, the regular working personnel as anticipated under
the budget is unable to efficiently handle the work under the expanded
Honorable Tom A. Craven, Page 3, O-5184
operation~.,;As.anexa.mple, .of,~one of these situations, reference
might be made to the .fact that some twelve ,months ago the demand
for birth certificates from the County Clerk multipliedseveral
times,: In McLennan County this, additional work required two extra
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dep~uties, to handle,tbe situation efficiently. The increased ,work pro-
duced revenues not anticipated under the budget.. Another situation
.would ,be a large: increase in the number of poll taxes collected., :
The fees received by a county for collecting poll-taxesdo not _
amount to enough to cover the expense of such collections and sub-
sequent handling. of the poll lists. These examples are, submitted
mshow that we.are sometimes .confronted with a propos~ition of,
spending Morse fork deputy~ hire than was anticipated under the budget
but in spending that additional,amount, .increased revenues. inthe,
same-,,off~ice are produced. While on the other hand, we frequently
have an expanded operation which does-not produce sufficie~nt addi-
tional revenues to, cover the ,additional. co& of the expansion. Again,
we might have a: s.urplus of increased~ re~venues in one. offices of the
_.. Officers’.Salary Group and a-deficit caused by a necessary e.xp.anded
program in another. office ~of’the same-group.’ When application is
,made’.by ‘a:department head for additional deputies to