.
.
THEA~~~RNEY GENERAL
OFTEXAS
Honorable Tom Seay
County Attorney
Amarillo, Texas
Dear Str: Opinion No. O-3200
Re: Whether Amarillo Independent
School District can make arrangements
with City of &!millo to assess and
collect the District's taxes and
vice versa.
In our opinion No. O-2152 we wrot& you that upon abolishing their respactive
offices of Tax Assessor-Collector the Amarillo Independent School District
and the City of Amarillo could require their taxes to be assessed by the
county assessor and collector of taxes. Later in opinion No. O-2667 we "
advised that%eDistrict could not have as its assessor and collector of
tnxestheTax Assessor and Collector of the City of Amarillo. In your letter
of February 19, 1941, you request us to write an opinion in response to
the following questions:
"1. Can the Amarillo Independent School District make arrangements
with the City of Amarillo to assess and collect the taxes for the
Amarillo Independent School District? If so, what would be the ,".,I:
~:
procedure necessary to effect such act?
"2 . Can the City of Amarillo make arrangements with the Amarillo
Independent School District to assess and collect the taxes for the
City of Amarillo? If so, what would be the procedure necessary to
effect such act?"
Under the statutes es they now exist there is one mm who can be made to
assess:.afid
collect taxes for both the city and the District. That is the
assessor and collector of taxes for the county, as pointed out in Opinion
No.0.2152. In no other way, under-present statutes, can the duties of
assessin: and collecting taxes for both the City snd the District be com-
bin&d and placed in one office. The District cannot use the City sssessor
and collector nor can the City use the District assessor and collector.
Our reasons for this conclusion, it seems to us, me sufficiently set out
in Opinion No. O-2687, which gives reference to applicable statutes and
authorities. Rather than repeat, we enclose kerewith a copy of that
Opinion.
.
.
Honorable Tom Seay, paga #2 (O-3200)
As already mentioned we held in Opinion No. O-2132 thnt $be duties of
assessing and collecting taxes for the City.and the District could be
legally placed in the county assessor and collector. By the same tokan,
they could be combined and placed in some other s?Qigleoffice, by
appropriate legislatiion. In this connection, howeveq,,we would call
your attention to the fact that Article 3, Section 56;State Constitutiou,
providing that the Legislature "shall not, except as otherwise providedk
in this Constitution, pass any local or special law * * * regulating the
affairs of * * * cities * * * or school districts; * * * creatgng offices,
or prescribing the powers nnd duties of officess in * * * cities, * * *
orschool districts, ' now applies to independent school districts, in
view of the amendment made to Article 7, Section 3 of the State Constitution,
effective in 19.27. In other words, any statute of this nature to be
valid would have to be a general one.
Yours very truly
ATTORNEY GENERAL OFTEXAS
s/ Glenn R Lt,:w.:,s
BY
Glenn R Lewis
Assistant
GRL:js
APPROVED FEB. 27, 1941
s/ GEmLu c. MANN
A!I'pIIRNM
GFEEBAL OF TEXAS
APPROVED OPINION CCMMITTEE
BY B. W. B. CHAIRMAN
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Combined Opinion