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 school district build on leased private land and lease out its unused land?
The Port Neches-Groves ISD wanted a 50-year (renewable to 100-year) deal with Huntsman Petrochemicals: lease Huntsman's land for $1 a year to build schools on it, and in return let Huntsman use a…
Can a Texas economic development corporation pay for road or highway construction near its industrial park?
The Athens Economic Development Corporation, a 4A corporation funded by city sales-tax money, owns an industrial park reachable only by one farm-to-market road. The Texas Department of…
Can a Texas county improve and assess costs for a subdivision road that is partly inside a city and partly in its ETJ?
Residents of the Skyview Subdivision in Caldwell County asked the county to bring their road up to county standards, maintain it, and bill the cost to property owners under Transportation Code…
Do public members of a Texas state board or commission get paid a daily per diem for their service?
The Commission on State Emergency Communications, which oversees Texas's 911 system, has five members appointed to represent the general public. Its executive director asked the Attorney General…
Is it constitutional for Texas to make overlapping appraisal districts tax a property at the lowest appraised value?
When a property sits in two or more appraisal districts at once (which happens when a taxing unit crosses county lines), Tax Code section 6.025(d) tells the chief appraisers, if they cannot agree on…
Can a towing company appeal a municipal-court magistrate's probable-cause decision after a Texas nonconsent tow hearing?
No. GA-0316 concluded that a municipal-court magistrate's probable-cause determination in a chapter 685 nonconsent tow hearing was final because the legislature had not authorized an appeal. The…
Does a Texas city that limits police tow fees have to follow the state tow-fee study law?
Transportation Code section 643.204 says a city that 'regulates' nonconsent tow fees must set up a procedure letting towing companies request a tow-fee study, and must set the allowed fees at fair…
Does a Texas community college's service area grow when it teaches courses outside its assigned territory?
Texas law assigns each junior (community) college district a fixed 'service area,' a defined territory that matters for things like real-property powers, annexation, and reduced tuition. The Alvin…
Can a Texas county force a justice of the peace to use the county's collection company for unpaid court fines?
Brazoria County's commissioners court hired a private attorney to collect overdue justice-court fines, fees, and costs (with a 30% collection fee under Code of Criminal Procedure article 103.0031),…
Does working as a prosecutor in another state count toward a Texas assistant prosecutor's longevity pay?
No. The opinion concluded that time spent working as an assistant prosecutor for a district attorney's office in another state does not count toward the four years of lifetime service credit Texas…
Can a Texas appraisal review board schedule a property tax protest hearing before the property owner has filed a written protest?
No. The opinion concluded that an appraisal review board has no authority to schedule a hearing on a property tax appraisal protest, or to notify the property owner of a hearing date, until the…
Does a Texas funeral home need a signed cremation authorization form if the deceased already chose cremation in a prepaid funeral contract?
No. The opinion concluded that when a person who bought a prepaid funeral contract already specified in that contract that their remains be cremated, the funeral establishment does not also need a…
Does federal securities law stop the Texas Comptroller from selling unclaimed, unregistered stock at public sale?
No, generally. The opinion concluded that the Texas Comptroller is not acting as a securities 'underwriter' under federal law when she sells unclaimed, unregistered shares of stock that have…
Can a Texas commissioners court take a vehicle away from one county office and give it to another department?
Yes, with a limit. The opinion concluded a commissioners court may adopt a county budget that reallocates a county vehicle, like one previously assigned to the district attorney's office, to a…
Can someone serve as both a Texas school district trustee and a director of an improvement district that covers the same area?
No. The opinion concluded that, because the East Montgomery County Improvement District's boundaries match the New Caney Independent School District's, and both bodies retain meaningful authority to…
Does a Texas deputy constable automatically lose their job if indicted for a felony?
No. The opinion concluded that, unlike a deputy sheriff (whose appointment is automatically revoked by statute on indictment for a felony), Local Government Code sections 85.003 and 86.011 do not…
Can a Texas city pay a private developer from a tax increment fund for work that wasn't competitively bid?
Only in limited circumstances. The opinion concluded a tax increment fund is a 'municipal fund' under Local Government Code chapter 252, so chapter 252's competitive bidding rules can apply to it.…
Can a Texas city give a new tax abatement for equipment added to a site that already got a 10-year abatement?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. A prior ten-year tax abatement on specific business personal property did not bar a municipality from separately abating different personal property added later…
Could a Texas county officer close his office and still pay employees for a day the Governor declared an official day of mourning?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. An elected Texas county officer had authority to close his own office and give employees the day off, as long as the closure served a public purpose, and the…
Can an out-of-state vendor's contract with a Texas county use another state's law to override Prompt Payment Act late fees?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. A Texas county's implied authority to negotiate contract terms does not extend to a choice-of-law clause that imports another state's law to override or negate…
Can a Texas county cremate a deceased pauper's remains instead of burying them?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Health and Safety Code section 694.002 lets a commissioners court dispose of a deceased pauper's remains by donation, cremation, or burial, and section…
Does a Texas school employee's vacation-time payout count toward Teacher Retirement System pension benefits?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Even if an employment contract labels a payment for accumulated vacation time as salary, Government Code section 822.201 excludes payments for unused vacation…
Does soliciting bail bond business inside a jail count as a crime of moral turpitude in Texas?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. A bail bond surety convicted of illegally soliciting business inside a police station, jail, or detention facility did not commit a crime of moral turpitude, so…
Can Texas seize the profits when a death row inmate sells his artwork online?
It depends on facts this opinion did not resolve. The Code of Criminal Procedure lets the state forfeit income from selling property whose value was increased by notoriety from a conviction, but…
Can a Texas city loosen the International Residential Code when it adopts local building code amendments?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Local Government Code section 214.212(c)(1) lets a municipality adopt local amendments to the International Residential Code without limiting those amendments to…
Can the Texas Commission on Fire Protection pay for a firefighter's room and board while attending training school?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. The Commission's authority to set guidelines for scholarship amounts implicitly lets it treat room and board as an integral part of a Fire Department Emergency…
Can two Texas county road commissioners share one road crew across their precincts?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Under the ex officio road commissioner system, each commissioner's hiring and supervisory authority is limited to his own precinct, so two commissioners cannot…
Can the Texas Railroad Commission use the Oil Field Cleanup Fund to clean up a commercial waste disposal site?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. The Railroad Commission may use the Oil Field Cleanup Fund to plug abandoned wells, remediate well or lease sites, and even clean up commercial disposal sites…
Does the Texas Permanent School Fund need a legislative appropriation to cover management fees on mutual funds it invests in?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. When a mutual fund or investment company deducts its management fee straight from the fund's own assets, that fee is part of the investment itself, not an…
Does the Texas electrical licensing exemption for industrial plants cover contract electricians who aren't direct employees of the plant?
This 2005 opinion declined to say. The AG concluded the exemption's key terms, 'person' and 'private industrial business,' are ambiguous and vague, and whether a specific worker counts as an…
Does a Texas physician have to report a pregnant patient's illegal drug use as child abuse?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. Even though a 2003 law expanded the definition of 'individual' to include an unborn child for wrongful-death and certain criminal statutes, that expanded…
Can the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality raise the lead cleanup level at just one contaminated site without changing its statewide rule?
No, according to this 2005 opinion. TCEQ's own rule sets a fixed 500 parts-per-million cleanup standard for lead in residential soil statewide, with no built-in variance, so applying a looser…
Can Texas deny a professional or occupational license to someone who refuses to give their social security number for religious reasons?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. Requiring a social security number on a license application is a neutral, generally applicable rule tied to child support enforcement, so it does not violate…
Can a sheriff refuse to accept a bail bond signed by an individual surety's attorney-in-fact instead of the surety personally?
Yes, according to this 2005 opinion. In a county without a bail bond board, article 17.08(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires a bail bond to be signed personally by the surety, so a…
Does a Texas-licensed engineer have to place a Texas seal on plans for a project that will be built outside Texas?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion. Section 1001.401 of the Occupations Code requires an engineer's seal on every plan, specification, plat, or report issued under a Texas engineering license, with…
Can the Texas Racing Commission grant a racetrack license if the county never formally certified its local option election to the Secretary of State on time?
It depends. This 2004 opinion held that some certification to the Secretary of State is mandatory before the Commission may accept or act on a license application, but the specific form of…
Can a Texas medical board deny a license to a joint MD/PhD graduate who passed the required licensing exam a few months after the statutory deadline?
This 2004 opinion concluded yes: the Occupations Code deadline for joint-degree graduates to finish the medical licensing exam is mandatory, not merely directory, so the doctrine of substantial…
Who decides whether a Texas navigation district's board members get retirement and medical benefits, the district board or the county commissioners court?
This 2004 opinion concluded the district board itself decides, because the county commissioners court's authority under Water Code section 62.070 covers only monetary pay, while sections 60.011 and…
When two Texas appraisal districts overlap and disagree on a property's value, do they have to use the lowest market value, the lowest appraised value, or both?
This 2004 opinion concluded chief appraisers in overlapping districts must enter both the lowest market value and the lowest appraised value on the tax rolls, not just one or the other, whenever the…
Can the Texas Real Estate Commission make rules requiring a real estate broker to actually negotiate for a client instead of just listing the property?
Yes, this 2004 opinion concluded the Commission could adopt three proposed rules spelling out what counts as negotiating on a client's behalf, because they clarified an existing rule and the…
Does a Texas state agency have to get equal employment opportunity training only after the Texas Workforce Commission finds reasonable cause that discrimination happened?
No, this 2004 opinion concluded the training requirement in Labor Code section 21.556(a) is triggered once a complaint is determined to have merit, a lower threshold than a formal reasonable cause…
Is the Texas Border Health Institute a state agency that has to follow open meetings, public records, and state procurement rules?
This 2004 opinion concluded the Border Health Institute is neither a true state agency nor a local political subdivision, a hybrid entity, but it must still comply with the Open Meetings Act and…
Can a homeowners association or developer foreclose on a Texas home for unpaid HOA fees even though homestead law protects homes from creditors?
Yes, this 2004 opinion concluded that under Inwood North Homeowners' Ass'n v. Harris and its later reaffirmation in Brooks v. Northglen Ass'n, a developer may impose a covenant lien on land before…
What did the 2004 Texas AG opinion say about VLTs and casino gaming for the state's recognized tribes?
The opinion found that the Restoration Act did not authorize the Alabama-Coushatta or Ysleta del Sur Pueblo to operate VLTs. It said they appeared unable to possess or use VLTs under the Johnson…
Can a Texas county keep its county clerk out of the commissioners court's closed executive sessions, and who controls the tape recording afterward?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion, a commissioners court has discretion whether to admit the county clerk to its executive sessions, and the court itself, not the clerk, is the proper custodian of…
Can a Texas home-rule city extend the life of a tax increment financing reinvestment zone past the deadline in its original ordinance?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Because tax increment financing is a narrow constitutional exception to the equal-and-uniform taxation rule that exists only through legislative authorization,…
Does a paralegal or legal assistant working under a Texas attorney need a private investigator license to gather evidence or information for a case?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Because attorneys practicing law are exempt from the Private Security Act, and their employees who investigate on the attorney's behalf are working in connection…
If a licensed Texas engineer seals a set of plans but their employer's firm isn't registered with the state engineering board, are the plans still valid?
Yes, under the Texas Engineering Practice Act, according to this 2004 opinion. A properly sealed document was not invalid under that Act because the engineer's employing firm lacked Board…
Can a Texas district attorney also work as a paid part-time teacher at a community college?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion. Because a community college instructor does not hold a constitutional civil office of emolument, teaching is not the practice of law, and neither the…
Can the Texas Office of Fire Fighters' Pension Commissioner charge volunteer fire departments a fee to help administer their retirement fund?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Because the statute governing the Texas Statewide Emergency Services Retirement Act only lets the Commissioner pay administrative expenses from fund investment…
Are Texas hospitals protected from lawsuits if a Medicare patient is hurt by a flu or pneumonia vaccine given under a standing hospital order?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Texas Health and Safety Code section 161.001(a) only shields vaccine administrators when the immunization is required by the Board of Health or by another law or…
Can the Texas governor sell part of Republic Square park in Austin to the federal government without a special act of the legislature?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion, assuming the state still owns Republic Square. Texas Government Code chapter 2204 already lets the Governor sell state land or an easement to the United States…
Can a Texas home-rule city's charter limit how often residents can petition for an election to adopt a property tax freeze for seniors or disabled homeowners?
Yes, according to this 2004 opinion. A home-rule city charter provision that caps special elections on voter-initiated ordinances at once every six months, and bars a repeat election on a defeated…
Can a Texas municipal management district use eminent domain to condemn private property?
It depends on which law created the district, according to this 2004 opinion. A municipal management district created under Local Government Code chapter 375 has no eminent domain power at all,…
Can a Texas city pass a civil-penalty ordinance for any class C misdemeanor under Local Government Code section 54.012(5), or only for health and safety violations?
Only for health and safety matters, according to this 2004 opinion. Section 54.012(5) is not a stand-alone grant letting a municipality impose civil penalties for any conduct classified as a class C…
If a Texas state agency cancels a request for proposal, can it return a bidder's confidential submission to the company that sent it?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Materials a business submits in response to a state agency's request for offer are state records under chapter 441 of the Government Code, so the agency must keep…
Can a Texas economic development corporation spend section 4B sales tax money on a youth football field?
It depends on the exact wording voters approved, according to this 2004 opinion. For Gun Barrel City specifically, the actual ballot proposition voters approved in 1997 authorized 4B sales tax…
Could the Port Arthur Economic Development Corporation pay a $300,000 grant and sales-tax refund promised to a private retailer?
No on the facts presented. The city could not bind or spend money for the separate development corporation, the proposed grant and sales-tax refund were not a project under former law, and the EDC…
When does a newly elected Texas sheriff take office if they are replacing someone the Commissioners Court appointed to fill a vacancy?
On January 1 of the year following the election, according to this 2004 opinion. Even though the appointed incumbent's statutory term runs only until the next general election, article XVI, section…
Can a Texas city or county put its crime control and prevention district's money into the city's own general revenue fund?
No, according to this 2004 opinion. Local Government Code section 363.208 requires a crime control and prevention district's funds to sit in a special account in the creating city or county's…
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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.