Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a Texas doctor be charged with capital murder for an illegal third-trimester or minor abortion?
The Attorney General concluded that a physician who violates section 164.052(a)(18) of the Occupations Code (restricting third-trimester abortions on a viable unborn child) or section 164.052(a)(19)…
Can a Texas school district hire a company to run its cafeteria and buy the food?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas school district participating in federal school nutrition programs may contract with a food service management company that provides food as part of its…
Can a charity pay for its bingo workers' health insurance out of bingo money in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that section 2001.458(b) of the Occupations Code prohibits a licensed authorized organization (a charity licensed to conduct bingo) from incurring or paying from its…
Can the Edwards Aquifer Authority cut groundwater permits below the legal minimum?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Legislature did not authorize the Edwards Aquifer Authority to reduce the groundwater withdrawal rights of two protected categories of permit holders,…
Does Texas's low-income housing tax credit plan have to count neighborhood input?
The Attorney General gave a multi-part answer about the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) and its 2006 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for low-income housing tax credits.…
Can a Texas school district pay city impact fees or build off-site roads for a new school?
The Attorney General concluded that Education Code section 11.168, which bars a school board from entering an agreement authorizing the use of district employees, property, or resources to provide…
Can Texas reveal which insurers write commercial coastal property policies?
The Attorney General concluded that section 38.003(d) of the Insurance Code does not prohibit the Texas Department of Insurance from disclosing the identities of companies that write commercial…
Do Texas school district lease-purchase deals have to follow the usual procurement rules?
The Attorney General concluded that Education Code sections 44.031 and 44.033, the competitive procurement rules for school district contracts and purchases, apply to a school district's…
Can someone who isn't a family member pick up a towed car from a storage lot using an affidavit?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Transportation reasonably read its own rules (43 Texas Administrative Code sections 18.82(3) and 18.92(a)(3)(G)) to allow a person who is…
Can a Texas county pay performance bonuses to only some of its employees?
The Attorney General concluded that Smith County's proposed incentive bonus plan for certain county employees would not violate article III, section 53 of the Texas Constitution, which bars extra…
Do Texas courts charge two separate filing fees when you file a civil lawsuit?
The Attorney General concluded that a district clerk must collect filing fees under both section 133.151 and section 133.152 of the Local Government Code, not just one of them. Section 133.151 is…
Is a golf cart a 'motor vehicle' for a lawsuit against a Texas school district?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas court would likely treat a self-propelled golf cart as a 'motor vehicle' under section 101.051 of the Texas Tort Claims Act, the provision that narrows a…
Can a Texas county pay the court-appointed attorney's fees in a private child custody case?
The Attorney General concluded that the answer turns on when the suit was filed. For private suits affecting the parent-child relationship filed on or after September 1, 2003 (the effective date of…
Can a Texas deputy district clerk also work part-time for a private law firm?
The Attorney General concluded that neither article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution (which bars holding more than one civil office of emolument) nor the common-law incompatibility doctrine…
Where can a Texas chiropractic license applicant take their 90 college credit hours?
The Attorney General concluded that Occupations Code section 201.302(a)(3), which requires a chiropractic license applicant to complete 90 semester hours of college courses at 'a school other than a…
Does a Texas clerk charge the $37 civil filing fee on a bail bond forfeiture?
The Attorney General concluded that neither of two new court fees adopted by House Bill 11 in 2006 applies to bail bond forfeiture matters. The $37 filing fee under Local Government Code section…
Is property owned by a city's public-private partnership exempt from Texas property tax?
The Attorney General concluded that there is no automatic answer, only a framework. To be exempt under the Texas Constitution and Tax Code section 11.11(a), property must be both publicly owned and…
Is my personal-and-business vehicle tax-free in Texas if I don't have to render it?
The Attorney General concluded that being excepted from the rendition requirement is not the same as being exempt from tax. Tax Code section 22.01(k) (added by House Bill 809 in 2005) says an…
Is the City of Millican, Texas still legally a city?
The Attorney General concluded that Millican is best treated as a special-law municipality, because although it first incorporated under general law in 1866, the legislature re-incorporated it by…
Is a city water rights fee charged to developers an illegal impact fee in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a water rights fee imposed solely to procure a water supply, rather than to pay for building physical facilities, is not an 'impact fee' under chapter 395 of the…
Can a Texas city spend its bond-type funds on a different water project than first planned?
The Attorney General concluded that the City of Copperas Cove may use the proceeds of its 2001 certificates of obligation for 'improvements to the City water and wastewater system,' including the…
Can a Texas deputy sheriff drive a county patrol car for off-duty security jobs?
The Attorney General concluded that a sheriff may let deputies use county patrol vehicles for off-duty security work without reimbursing the county only when the use satisfies the public-purpose…
Can Texas deny your driver's license renewal for missing court on any charge?
The Attorney General concluded that the chapter 706 'failure to appear' program, which lets the Department of Public Safety deny a driver's license renewal, is not limited to traffic tickets, but it…
Can a small Texas town annex a strip of roadway right-of-way next to the city limits?
The Attorney General concluded that a Type A general-law city with fewer than 5,000 residents can annex land it does not own only if that land sits inside its half-mile extraterritorial…
Does an open meetings notice have to say a city council will vote on a motion, not just discuss it?
The Attorney General concluded that the Open Meetings Act requires a city to give advance notice of the topic that will come before the council, here a 'personal endorsement' motion, so a reader is…
Can a county agency keep providing foster care and case management for CPS after Texas privatized those services?
The Attorney General concluded that after Senate Bill 6's overhaul of child protective services, the Department of Family and Protective Services may not contract with a governmental entity, such as…
What can a Texas county attorney spend hot check fund money on?
The Attorney General concluded that money in a county attorney's hot check fund may be spent only to defray the salaries and expenses of the prosecutor's office, at the attorney's sole discretion,…
What are the rules for Texas homestead preservation districts and their tax-increment reinvestment zones?
The Attorney General read Chapter 373A, the 2005 law (which by its population criteria applied only to Austin) that lets a qualifying city create homestead preservation districts and reinvestment…
Can a Texas county hire a road administrator instead of a licensed road engineer?
The Attorney General concluded that under section 252.304 of the Transportation Code, a county commissioners court running a county road department generally must appoint a licensed professional…
Does a Texas hospital district have to run an emergency ambulance, and can it pay incentives to recruit a doctor?
The Attorney General concluded that a county hospital district is not legally required to run emergency ambulance service; ambulance service is a discretionary, ancillary function, so the Sabine…
If a Texas county abandons a road, who gets the drainage easement, and does the county have to sell it?
The Attorney General sorted out which of three statutes governs when a county gives up a drainage easement or right-of-way. If the easement is part of a public road, then under Transportation Code…
Can a county use federal Justice Assistance Grant money to pay sheriff or constable overtime?
The Attorney General concluded that a county taking part in Operation Linebacker may not use Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds to compensate its sheriff or constable, including for overtime. A…
Can Federal Reserve notes be used as collateral for Texas state repurchase agreements?
The Attorney General clarified an earlier opinion (GA-0324) and concluded that Federal Reserve notes are eligible collateral for the state's direct security repurchase agreements. Under federal law,…
Can a Texas school board trustee also serve as county clerk?
The Attorney General concluded that a school district trustee is not, as a matter of law, barred from simultaneously serving as county clerk of the county where the district sits. The constitutional…
Could East Coke County Hospital District operate a long-term care facility and levy taxes to pay for it?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The East Coke County Hospital District, a district created in 1969 by a special law under article IX, section 9 of the Texas Constitution, had authority to…
Can a Texas constable run animal control on his own, without the county commissioners court approving it?
The Attorney General concluded a constable cannot make himself the animal or rabies control authority. If a constable has reason to believe an animal is being cruelly treated, the cruelty statute…
If a Texas county jailer is also a deputy sheriff, does he need a private security guard commission to moonlight as an armed guard?
The Attorney General did not give a yes-or-no answer, because it turns on the facts of each person's job. The Private Security Act exempts only full-time peace officers from its commissioning…
Can a Texas store scan and save your driver's license when you buy cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A general law (Transportation Code section 521.126) makes it a crime to read and store the data on a driver's license magnetic stripe, but it has an exception for…
Does a retired federal Customs and Border Protection officer meet Texas firearm standards to carry concealed under federal law?
The Attorney General did not answer the underlying question. A 2004 federal law, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, lets a qualified retired law enforcement officer carry a concealed firearm…
How much can a Texas county court at law judge be paid, and is the salary capped relative to a district judge?
The Attorney General read the two salary statutes together. For Gregg County, the maximum a statutory county court at law judge may be paid is 90 percent of the total annual salary a district judge…
In a Texas parental-rights termination case, does an indigent parent get free transcripts of hearings and depositions, and who pays?
The Attorney General gave a layered answer. For pretrial (non-appellate) transcripts of hearings and depositions, there is no statute or case directly on point, so the test is the U.S. Supreme…
Can a Texas county attorney also volunteer as an ESGR ombudsman for the Guard and Reserve?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A county attorney holds a state office, and the Texas Constitution bars one person from holding both a state office and a federal 'office of profit or trust.' But…
Does a Texas home-rule city have to pave and maintain a dedicated road so it can serve newly annexed property?
The Attorney General gave a two-part legal rule but left the facts to be decided elsewhere. A city must improve and maintain a dedicated right-of-way within its limits in two situations: (1) if the…
Can multiple companies get a single group license to manufacture or distribute bingo supplies in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The Bingo Enabling Act requires a manufacturer or distributor of bingo equipment to be licensed, and it defines the 'person' who can hold a license to include an…
Can Texas city police officers set bail for someone they arrest, or does a judge have to do it?
The Attorney General read the bail statutes to give municipal police officers limited bail-setting authority. Under Code of Criminal Procedure article 17.20, a City of El Paso police officer may set…
Can the Texas State Board of Education require school textbooks to meet content standards before approving them?
The Attorney General concluded the State Board of Education could adopt general textbook content standards, but only the kinds the Education Code already authorizes: the TEKS curriculum standards,…
Is it constitutional for Texas to let state legislators' letters affect who gets low-income housing tax credits?
The Attorney General concluded that Government Code section 2306.6710(b)(1) did not, on its face, violate the separation-of-powers doctrine in the Texas Constitution. The statute makes the Texas…
Do I have to register as a sex offender in Texas for an out-of-state conviction if I was never on Texas probation or parole?
The Attorney General concluded that yes, a person who lives in Texas and has a reportable out-of-state sex-offense conviction must register under Code of Criminal Procedure chapter 62, even if the…
Can a Texas junior college district annex several school districts or counties with a single election?
The Attorney General concluded that a junior college district may not hold one annexation election covering territory that spans more than one school district or county. Education Code section…
Can a Texas junior college board start an annexation election without collecting voter signatures?
The Attorney General concluded that the governing board of a junior college district may call an annexation election without a voter petition when the student-enrollment conditions in Education Code…
Can a Texas municipal utility district that never provided service dissolve and refund leftover taxes?
The Attorney General concluded that Lake LBJ Municipal Utility District No. 2 could not be dissolved by the TCEQ as an 'inactive' district under Water Code section 49.321, because TCEQ rules require…
Can I file a 'common-law copyright' on my name at the Texas county clerk's office?
The Attorney General concluded that a county clerk cannot file or record a 'common-law copyright' notice. A county clerk may record only documents that a statute authorizes, requires, or permits,…
Do health insurance and a car allowance count as pay for a Texas city's mayor and council under the city charter?
The Attorney General offered a general observation that health insurance premium payments and fixed car allowances exceeding actual expenses count as 'compensation' for a city's mayor and…
Can a Texas family bury relatives on their own land without filing cemetery paperwork with the county?
The Attorney General concluded that an unincorporated family burying its own members on family-owned land is not a 'cemetery organization' under chapter 711 of the Health and Safety Code, so it is…
Is the Texas Office for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities an independent state agency?
The Attorney General concluded that the Office for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities was not subject to the fiscal control or oversight of the Health and Human Services Commission, which…
Did Texas conflict-disclosure law require every local vendor, including professionals and small sellers, to file a questionnaire?
Under the law as it stood in 2006, vendors contracting or seeking to contract with a Texas local governmental entity generally had to file a conflict-of-interest questionnaire even when they had no…
Does a veteran have to be a U.S. citizen to get the Texas veteran tuition exemption?
The Attorney General concluded that an honorably discharged veteran does not have to be a United States citizen at the time of registering for college to receive the tuition-and-fee exemption in…
Can Texas public school textbook funds be spent on computers and other equipment?
The Attorney General concluded that money in the state textbook fund cannot be used to buy computer hardware or other equipment. The Education Code defines a 'textbook' (which includes an…
Does a property tax lien on a manufactured home follow the home or the owner?
The Attorney General concluded that a tax lien for taxes on a manufactured home attaches to the specific home (not the owner) on January 1 of the tax year, so it follows the home. A taxing unit may…
Can a Texas county auditor be removed for having a personal interest in a county contract?
The Attorney General concluded that a county auditor who has a personal interest in a county contract, contrary to the oath required by Local Government Code section 84.007(b)(2), may have committed…
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Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.