Did Louisiana's elderly affairs office need a contract with each council on aging to distribute donated utility aid?

Plain-English summary

Entergy collected customer donations for people needing help with energy costs and proposed sending them through the Governor's Office of Elderly Affairs to designated councils on aging. The AG said the donations became public funds when the state office received them, but the constitution allowed public spending for social welfare support of the needy. It found that separate contracts with each council were unnecessary if the office helped establish objective, consistent need criteria, such as age and income. It recommended keeping records of receipts, distributions, and criteria, and noted a possible donation-terms exception to immediate treasury deposit.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2002. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Did each council on aging need its own contract with the state office?
The AG said no for the described donation program, provided the office helped establish objective criteria for recipients.

Did the donated money become public funds?
Yes. The opinion said it became public money once the Governor's Office of Elderly Affairs received it.

What recipient standard did the opinion require?
It called for objective, consistent criteria to determine who was truly needy and gave age and income as examples.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion applied Article 7, Section 14B of the Louisiana Constitution on social welfare aid to the needy. It also discussed Article 7, Section 9 on treasury deposits and an exception for donations with different terms.

Citations and references

• Article 7, Section 14B, on social welfare support of the needy.
• Article 7, Section 9, on treasury deposits.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/02-0100

Original opinion text

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
One American Place
301 Ma~n Street, Suite 600
CIVIL DIVISION
P O Box 94005
BATON ROUGE
TEL : (225) 342-7013
RICHARD P. IEYOUB
FAX: (225) 342-2090
70804-9005
ATTORNEY GENERAL

March 14, 2002
Opinion Number 02-0100

90-A-2 Public Funds- Loans, Pledges or Grants
Mr. P.F. "Pete" Arceneaux
Article 7, Section 14B of the Louisiana Constitution
Executive Director
Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs may receive Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs donations to be used to assist with the energy costs of
P.O. Box 80374
the needy without the necessity of entering into separate
Baton Rouge, LA 70898-0374
contracts with various councils on aging provided it assist
in establishing objective criteria to determine those who are truly needy.
Dear Mr. Arceneaux:

We received your request for our opinion regarding a proposed agreement between the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs (GOEA), Entergy Corporation and various councils on aging located throughout Louisiana. As indicated in your request, Entergy Corporation collects donations from its customers to assist with the energy costs of those in need of assistance. Entergy Corporation would like to transfer the donated funds to GOEA to in turn distribute the funds to the various councils on aging as designated by Entergy Corporation. The particular council on aging will distribute the funds to those in need and thereafter submit a report or accounting of the distribution to Entergy Corporation. You specifically question if GOEA must enter into a contract with each of the councils on aging.

Clearly, once the funds are received by GOEA from Entergy Corporation, they are public funds. Thus, your request must be addressed in light of Article 7, Section 14 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 that prohibits the donation of public funds. Article 7, Section 14B specifically authorizes the use of public funds for programs of social welfare for the aid and support of the needy. Our office has opined on numerous occasions that in order to fall within this exception, one must establish objective and consistent criteria to determine those who are truly needy.

In light of the above, it is our opinion that GOEA need not enter into a contract with each council on aging. GOEA may forward donations it receives from Entergy to the councils on aging to be used to assist in paying the utility bills of the needy provided that GOEA assists in establishing objective criteria, i.e., age and income, to determine those who are truly needy. We recommend that GOEA maintain adequate documentation of the receipt and distribution of the funds and of the criteria used for distribution.

We also note that Article 7, Section 9 of the Louisiana Constitution requires that all money received by the state or by any state agency be deposited immediately upon

Page 2

Opinion Number 02-0100
Mr. P.F. "Pete" Arceneaux
Executive Director
Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs
Page -2-

receipt in the state treasury. There are exceptions to this requirement, one of which is money received as a result of donations when the terms and conditions of such require otherwise. Thus, GOEA and Entergy Corporation may want to consider making such a condition on these donations.

We trust that this adequately responds to your request. If you have any questions or comments, please contact our office.

With kindest regards,

Yours very truly,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
Attorney General

BY:
TINA VlCARI GRANT
Assistant Attorney General

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