,
mm A’ITORNEY GENERAL
OF TEXAS
Honorable R. S. Wychc Opinion No. O-3820
County Auditor
Gregg County Re: Commisstonars’ Court does not
Longview, Texas have authority to transfer auto
registration fees to the Officers’
Dear Sir: Salary Fund.
Your request for opinion upon the following stated question:
*Has the Commissioners Court authority to transfer
auto registration fees to the officer’s salary fund?”
has been received and carefully considered by this department.
~.
After providing that the automobile registration fees which the
county ts permitted to retain shall be placed to the credit of the Road and
Bridge Fund of the county, Section 10 of Article 6675a prescribes the dis-
position of such portion of the Road and Bridge Fund as follows:
” . . . None of the monies so placed to the cre.dit of the
Road and Bridge Fund of a county shall be used to pay the
salary or compensation of any County Judge or County Com-
missioner, but all said monies shall be used for the construc-
tion and maintenance of lateral roads tn such county under
the suoervision of the County. Ennineer.
- if there be one. and
if there is no such engineer, then the County Commissioners
Court shall have authority to command the services of the
Division Engineer of the State Highway Department for the
purpose of supervising the construction and surveying of
lateral roads in their respective counties. All funds alla-
cated to the counties by the provisions of this Act (Arts.
6675a-1 to 66758-14; P. C. Art. 807a) may be used by the
counties in the payment of obligations, if any, issued and
incurred in the construction or the improvement of all roads ’
including State Highways of such count&s and districts there-
in; or the improvement of the roads comprising the County
Road system.” (Underscoring ours)
Honorable R. S. Wyche, Page 2 (O-3820)
The case of Stovall v. Shivers, Civ. App., 75 S.W.2d 276,
affirmed (Comm. App.) 103 S.W.2d 363, on page 367 of the latter opinion,
contains the following statement wttb respect to the above quokd section:
*As to that portion of automobtle raptstratton fees
retained by Van Zandt County, Article 6675a-10, Vernon’s
Annotated Civil Statutes, expressly provides how same
shall be expended, and for that reason it is obvious that
Article 6740 has no applicatton to same.”
This department has repeatedly ruled that such registration fees
must be expended in accordance with the statute. We quote from opinion
No. O-1091 of this department as follows:
‘As for that portion of the county road and bridge fund
consisting of automobile registration fees paid into the fund.
ofArticle 6675a, Section 10. is controlling. It is our opinion
that in expending this portion of the fund for the purposes ex-
pressly set out in Section 10 of Article 6675a, the commis-
sioners’ court of the county shall regard the roads and high-
ways of the county as a system to be built, improved and
maintained as a whole to the best interests and welfare of
all the people of the c.ounty and of all the precincts of the
county. ”
We quote from opinion No. O-3171 of this dapartment.as follows:
“Since the Legislature has specifically provided that
such regtstration fees shall be expended for specifiq pur-
poses , those fees may not be legally expended for any other
purposes, nor may they be credited to any fund except the
Road and Bridge Fund as directed by the statute; and when
so credikd the Commissioners’ Court may not transfer
them, or any part thereof, to any other fund of the county.”
It is our opinion that your questi,on should be answered in the
negative, and it is so answered.
Very truly yours,
APPROVED AUG 13, 1941
/s/ Robert E. Kepke ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
Acting Attorney General of Texas
W JF:GO:tiw i. By /a/ Wm. J. Fanning
Wm. J. Fanning, Assfsmnt
APPROVED Opinion Committee
By: /s/ GWS. Chairman
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Combined Opinion