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 city spend leftover tax increment funds outside the zone after the zone ends?
The Attorney General concluded that chapter 311 of the Tax Code does not let a city undertake or complete a reinvestment zone project in a way that departs from the board of directors' project and fin…
Does a Texas commissioners court have to fill a vacant constable position?
The Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court has no enforceable duty to fill a vacancy in the office of constable. Section 87.041 of the Local Government Code says the court 'may' fill su…
Can a Texas county borrow money from the State Infrastructure Bank and repay it with property taxes without issuing bonds?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas county may not borrow money from the State Infrastructure Bank for road and bridge construction and repay the loan with ad valorem property taxes over a ter…
Can a Texas junior college transfer donor-restricted scholarship funds to a nonprofit foundation?
The Attorney General concluded that scholarship money a donor gives a public junior college for needy students is impressed with a charitable trust, so it is not a general asset of the college. Becaus…
If two Texas bills passed the same session both create a state-employee retirement option, which one takes effect?
The Attorney General concluded that section 814.1043 of the Government Code, added by House Bill 3504 to give a temporary early-retirement option to South Texas Hospital workers, has no legal effect. …
Can a Texas county skip competitive bidding for an ambulance service contract?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas commissioners court may exempt a contract for ambulance service from the County Purchasing Act's competitive-bidding requirement, because ambulance service …
Can a Texas tax assessor-collector use motor vehicle inventory tax interest to boost staff salaries?
The Attorney General answered three questions about the Motor Vehicle Inventory Tax Fund. First, a county tax assessor-collector may use interest earned on the fund to supplement the salaries of full-…
Can a Texas county waive property taxes on a building used by a nonprofit but owned by an individual?
The Attorney General agreed with Cameron County that it could not waive the taxes, penalties, and interest on a building owned by an individual even though a nonprofit organization used it. Penalty an…
Can a Texas city grant a new tax abatement on property that already had a ten-year abatement?
The Attorney General concluded that a governmental entity may not grant a new tax abatement on property that already received a full ten-year abatement under chapter 312 of the Tax Code, and that the …
Can a Texas state officer or employee bind the state with an oral contract?
The Attorney General concluded that a state officer or employee cannot bind the State of Texas by any contract, oral or written, unless the constitution or a statute gives them actual authority to do …
Can a Texas county official close the office for bad weather and still pay employees?
The Attorney General answered three questions for a county auditor. First, absent a state law saying otherwise, an elected or appointed county official has the implied authority to set the official's …
Can Texas revoke a child-care license over an old criminal conviction?
The Attorney General concluded that, under the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services' current rules, the Department may revoke the license of a child-care facility operator who was convicte…
When must Texas police register a parolee as a sex offender?
The Attorney General concluded that local law enforcement has no discretion when a parolee has a 'reportable conviction or adjudication' under chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; the authori…
Can a Texas county make a bail bond company post a letter of credit for each agent?
The Attorney General concluded that chapter 1704 of the Occupations Code requires a corporate bail bond surety to furnish one letter of credit to get licensed in a county, and a county bail bond board…
Can voter-approved bond money pay legal fees for construction arbitration?
The Attorney General concluded that proceeds of bonds voters approved to construct a public improvement may be used to pay legal fees for arbitration of a contract relating to that construction, but o…
Does a company keep its state license when it converts to a different type of business entity in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that, as a general rule, a state license held by a Texas corporation continues to be held by the new entity when the corporation converts to a different business form un…
Can a county sheriff police a city inside the county without an agreement, and must service be equal because residents pay county taxes?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas sheriff is the conservator of the peace for the entire county, so he is authorized to provide law enforcement inside an incorporated city within the county …
Can a state agency write a bidding specification that only one company's product can meet?
The Attorney General concluded that, as a general rule, the Texas Department of Transportation may not restrict a material specification to suit only one vendor's product when equal-quality material i…
Can a county pay a former employee for unused vacation time after he becomes a county officer?
The Attorney General concluded that where a county's personnel policy credits unused vacation time only on the anniversary of an employee's start date, an employee who resigns before that anniversary …
Does a Texas sheriff have to use competitive bidding to spend jail commissary money?
The Attorney General concluded that a sheriff may spend jail-commissary proceeds under section 351.0415 of the Local Government Code without following the competitive procurement rules of the County P…
Can a Texas county judge act as a surety on a bail bond in the county where he serves?
The Attorney General concluded that a county judge may not act as a surety on a bail bond in the county where he presides. A bail bond is a contract to which the county is a party and in which the sur…
Can a city council member get a copy of the tape of a closed meeting they missed?
The Attorney General concluded that a member of a governmental body may review the tape recording (or certified agenda) of a closed meeting even if the member did not attend it, and that the body cann…
Can a prosecutor require a donation to a charity as a condition of pretrial diversion?
The Attorney General concluded that a county attorney may not condition pretrial diversion on the offender paying $1,500 to a nonprofit organization, even one the county attorney and his assistants se…
Can a Texas city's 4B economic development sales tax be spent on promotion instead of projects?
The Attorney General concluded that sales and use taxes levied under section 4B of the Development Corporation Act of 1979 may only be used to pay or finance project costs. They may not be spent on 'p…
Can a nurse anesthetist in Texas give anesthesia without a physician directly supervising?
The Attorney General concluded that when a certified registered nurse anesthetist selects and administers anesthesia and cares for an anesthetized patient, that is the practice of professional nursing…
Does closing a county road in Texas require a unanimous commissioners court vote?
The Attorney General concluded that closing a public road requires a unanimous vote of the commissioners court, and that this applies whether the road is a through street or a cul-de-sac. Section 251.…
Can a Texas school district give back pay to an employee who was suspended and later acquitted?
The Attorney General concluded that a school district may award back pay to employees who were indicted, suspended or terminated, and later acquitted and reinstated, but it is not required to. The Tex…
Does a Texas police department need a private security license to offer alarm monitoring?
The Attorney General concluded that a city police department is not subject to licensing by the Texas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies under chapter 1702 of the Occupations…
Can a Texas school district spend money on a private foundation's safety program?
The Attorney General concluded that article III, section 52 of the Texas Constitution does not stop a school district from spending district funds or resources on 'Texas Safe Sports Week' activities, …
Are Texas police protected when escorting a domestic violence victim to get their belongings?
The Attorney General concluded that article 5.045 of the Code of Criminal Procedure protects a peace officer who escorts a victim of family violence back to the residence to retrieve personal property…
Can a charitable raffle in Texas give away a certificate of deposit as a prize?
The Attorney General concluded that a certificate of deposit may not be offered as a prize at a charitable raffle. The Charitable Raffle Enabling Act bars offering 'money' as a prize, and although a c…
Can a Texas court order the relative a truant child lives with to bring the child to court?
The Attorney General concluded that a court hearing a truancy case may compel a juvenile who lives with a custodian, an adult the child resides with such as an aunt, uncle, or grandparent, to appear b…
Does a Texas 4B economic development corporation have to follow public bidding rules when it sells land?
The Attorney General concluded that a section 4B development corporation is not a 'political subdivision,' so it does not have to follow section 272.001 of the Local Government Code, the notice-and-bi…
Can a Texas hospital district board meet in closed session to review a doctor's competence or hospital privileges?
The Attorney General concluded that a hospital district's governing body acts as a medical peer review committee under the Medical Practice Act when it decides whether a physician should receive hospi…
Can Texas public universities consider race in awarding financial aid after Hopwood?
The Attorney General withdrew a 1997 letter opinion (LO-97-001) that had read the Fifth Circuit's Hopwood decision to bar Texas public universities from considering race in any higher-education benefi…
Can a Texas city give a tax abatement for moving a building to a new spot on the same property?
The General Land Office asked whether moving a structure from one spot to another on the same property counts as a 'specific improvement or repair' that can support a tax abatement under chapter 312 o…
Does a large Texas city have to spend half its hotel tax on tourism advertising?
The Attorney General concluded that the rule in section 351.103(a) of the Tax Code, which makes a large municipality spend at least half its hotel occupancy tax revenue on tourism and convention adver…
Can a Texas county trade its surplus equipment for goods instead of cash?
The Attorney General concluded that a county has no authority to exchange surplus property for non-monetary consideration. Sabine County had received a bid offering rock worth $20,000 for surplus equi…
Can a Texas juvenile court hear a truancy case against a 17-year-old?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a juvenile court could not hold an adjudication hearing for someone referred as a truant by a justice or municipal court when the conduct behind the referral ha…
Does a Texas county clerk have to collect reimbursements when one county pays another county's mental health proceeding costs?
No statute imposes that duty on the county clerk. The Attorney General concluded that a county clerk had no statutory duty to collect the reimbursements a county might be owed for mental health servic…
Was the 1891 Texas law that disincorporated the City of San Elizario constitutional?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the 1891 special act repealing the Legislature's earlier incorporation of San Elizario violated neither section 56 nor section 57 of article III of the Texas C…
Can a Texas county road commissioner buy county auto parts from a company he owns?
No. The Attorney General concluded that under Transportation Code sections 252.005 and 252.006, a county commissioner acting as precinct road commissioner could not purchase, or authorize precinct emp…
Can a Texas school take away perfect-attendance rewards from a student with an excused absence?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a school may not deny a 'perfect attendance' benefit, such as skipping a test or final exam, to a student whose absence was excused under Education Code section…
Can a Texas county collect the extra statutory-county-court fees and costs under Government Code section 51.702?
A county commissioners court could authorize collection of the fees and costs under Government Code section 51.702, relying on a Wichita County district court declaratory judgment that upheld the stat…
What procedures can a Texas therapeutic optometrist perform after the 1999 change to the surgery definition?
The Texas Optometry Act forbids a therapeutic optometrist to perform surgery. After the 76th Legislature added a statutory definition of 'surgery' in 1999, that definition controls. The Attorney Gener…
Can the Texas Court Reporters Certification Board reject or penalize a court reporting firm's registration?
No to both. The Attorney General concluded that the Board had a mandatory duty to accept a correctly completed registration application from a court reporting firm; registration just identifies the fi…
Can a Texas municipal judge also serve as a director of the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority is not a soil and water conservation district, so its directors do not fall within the only exception to artic…
Can a Texas district clerk refuse to file an inmate's divorce petition because the inmate is trying to meet the county residency rule with prison time?
No, not on the clerk's own authority. The Attorney General concluded that filing a petition is a ministerial duty, so a district clerk has no power to refuse inmate divorce petitions. A district judge…
Is Texas's $150 hazardous-substance registration fee legal, or does federal toy-safety law override it?
It was legal. The Attorney General concluded that section 501.024 of the Health and Safety Code, requiring makers and distributors of hazardous substances to register annually with the Texas Departmen…
Can a Texas county give a private company an economic development grant that works like a property tax break?
Not under the statute Dallas County relied on. The Attorney General concluded that section 381.004 of the Local Government Code did not authorize a county commissioners court to make economic developm…
Can Texas leave home schoolers out of a school voucher program for private and religious schools?
Probably, with a caveat. The Attorney General concluded that the Legislature may exclude home schools from a voucher system for private and parochial schools as long as the exclusion bears a rational …
Can Texas require a new water well to sit a minimum distance from the property line?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation rule requiring a water well to be located a minimum distance from a property line fell within the Department's r…
Can a Texas county use taxpayer money to hire a lobbyist to influence the Legislature?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that section 305.026 of the Government Code authorizes a county to spend public funds to retain a registered lobbyist to communicate with legislators on the county'…
Can a Texas court charge a separate filing fee for a forced-medication hearing for someone already committed?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a hearing on the involuntary administration of psychoactive medication under section 574.106 of the Health and Safety Code is a distinct legal action, not mere…
Can a Texas county withhold a justice of the peace's pay over a judgment for unpaid property taxes?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that once a valid judgment for delinquent property taxes has been entered against a justice of the peace, section 154.025 of the Local Government Code bars the coun…
Can Texas collect its controlled-substances drug tax after someone has already been criminally prosecuted for the same drugs?
The Attorney General concluded that the chapter 159 controlled-substances tax is a criminal punishment, not an ordinary revenue measure. Under the Court of Criminal Appeals decisions in Stennett and W…
Who controls a Texas juvenile probation department's budget and staff pay, the county commissioners court or the juvenile board?
The Attorney General concluded that a juvenile probation board is an independent entity, so the county commissioners court's authority over it was narrow. Under Local Government Code section 111.094, …
Can a Texas county auditor make the county attorney turn over receipts for spending from the hot check fund?
The Attorney General concluded that yes, a county auditor could require the county attorney to provide receipts for purchases (or reimbursements) from the 'hot check' fund, as long as doing so was an …
Can a Texas county judge hold a death inquest when the local justice of the peace isn't available?
The Attorney General concluded that no, a county judge could not conduct an inquest. Article 49.07(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure lists the county judge and other officials who must be notified …
Can a Texas county pay or buy equipment for a volunteer fire department without a contract for fire services?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 352.001(c) of the Local Government Code, a county commissioners court could purchase fire-fighting equipment for, or pay, a volunteer fire department o…
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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.