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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Does the State Office of Administrative Hearings handle Court Reporters Certification Board cases?
The Attorney General concluded no. The 1991 law creating the State Office of Administrative Hearings (article 6252-13f) reaches only 'state agencies' that are subject to the Administrative Procedure…
Can the Texas Public Utility Commission lower the assessment utilities pay without the Legislature?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 78 of the Public Utility Regulatory Act set the assessment each utility pays (one-sixth of one percent of gross receipts) to fund the Public Utility…
Who runs the West Brazoria County Drainage District if the board election never happened?
The Attorney General concluded the Brazoria County commissioners court is still the district's governing board. A 1981 law was supposed to replace the commissioners court with a five-member board…
Does a Texas justice of the peace have to keep a paper copy of an electronic court docket?
The Attorney General concluded no. Article 45.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lets a justice of the peace or municipal court judge process and store the court's criminal docket electronically,…
Can a Texas hospital pay doctors a flat fee to be on call to admit ER patients?
The Attorney General concluded yes, conditionally. Section 161.091 of the Health and Safety Code makes it an offense for a licensed health care professional to pay or accept money for securing or…
Can a Texas city cut a sales tax that is paying off its development corporation's bonds?
The Attorney General concluded that it cannot, as to bonds already issued. Section 4A of the Development Corporation Act lets a city hold a rollback election to reduce, or limit the time of, the…
Can the Texas dental board limit HIV-positive dental workers more than state law does?
The Attorney General concluded that several rules the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners adopted for HIV- and HBV-infected dental health care workers exceeded the board's authority because they…
Who actually controls the rules of the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Board of Insurance, not the private insurance companies that make up the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan (TAIP), holds the ultimate rulemaking authority…
How can a Texas county pay for a county elections administrator's office?
The Attorney General concluded that even though the Interlocal Cooperation Act generally lets counties contract with other local governments for shared services, Victoria County had to fund its…
Can a Texas county pay back a private person's legal bills from a lawsuit?
The Attorney General concluded that article III, section 52 of the Texas Constitution prohibits Morris County from reimbursing two private landowners for the attorneys' fees they ran up in a…
Can a school employee keep their job if a relative is elected to the board?
The Attorney General answered eight questions about the Texas nepotism law (V.T.C.S. article 5996a) as it applies to school districts. The key holdings: an employee may keep a promotion he held for…
Can a Texas hospital district lease space to a private drug treatment center?
The Attorney General concluded that the Chambers County Hospital District could lease part of its hospital facility to a group of private physicians to run an adolescent drug treatment center.…
Can a city council member vote on zoning that affects their own neighborhood?
The Attorney General concluded that, in certain circumstances, chapter 171 of the Local Government Code requires a home rule city council member to abstain from voting on a zoning matter affecting…
Can a Texas city let employees donate sick leave to coworkers who run out?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas home rule city has the authority to create a voluntary 'sick leave pool,' where employees contribute accrued sick leave that coworkers who have exhausted…
Who decides how much a county court reporter in Texas gets paid?
The Attorney General concluded that the Denton County Commissioners Court, not the district judges, sets the salary of official court reporters in the county courts at law. Government Code section…
Can Texas make you arbitrate a dispute instead of going to court?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas general arbitration statute (V.T.C.S. article 224 et seq.) does not violate the 'open courts' provision of the Texas Constitution (article I, section…
Can a Texas county charge subdivision owners to fix their roads, and how?
The Attorney General concluded the charge a county levied to improve subdivision roads under article 6702-3 was a 'special assessment,' not a tax, so property-tax rules did not apply. The county tax…
Are life insurance cash values fully protected from creditors in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that article 21.22 of the Insurance Code wholly exempted life insurance proceeds and cash values from seizure by creditors, and that this unlimited exemption…
Can a Texas employer get an applicant's workers' comp injury history before a job offer?
The Attorney General concluded the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, as interpreted by the EEOC, bars an ADA-covered employer from getting an applicant's workers' compensation history before…
Can Texas add a $10 court cost in only some counties for the same crime?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 51.702(b) of the Government Code let a county's commissioners court opt in to charging an extra $10 court cost on each criminal conviction in a statutory…
Can a Texas hospital district elect all its directors from single-member districts?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Chapter 286 of the Health and Safety Code let a hospital district elect all of its directors 'by place' from single-member districts, and those single-member…
Is random drug testing of all public employees legal in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that whether a particular government drug-testing policy is constitutional generally turns on facts, so it is beyond the scope of an AG opinion; the governing board…
Can a Texas county build its jail somewhere other than the county seat?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Although county jails were traditionally placed at the county seat, a 1989 amendment to section 292.001 of the Local Government Code authorized a commissioners…
Is a Texas county auditor's own salary subject to the 5% budget increase cap?
The Attorney General concluded no. Local Government Code section 111.013 capped year-over-year increases in 'the amount budgeted for expenses of the county auditor's office' and in an assistant…
Can a Texas lender make you buy manufactured-home insurance from a company it picks?
The Attorney General concluded a creditor in a manufactured-home credit transaction could require the buyer to carry a paid-in-full property insurance policy for whatever term the creditor set, but…
Can the Texas Commission on Jail Standards approve temporary or alternative inmate housing?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Only a county's traditional jail had to satisfy Chapter 351 of the Local Government Code. Other facilities that held county inmates answered only to the…
Can a Texas budget rider force a state agency to adopt another department's procedures?
The Attorney General concluded no. A rider to a general appropriations act may only detail, limit, or restrict how appropriated money is spent. The rider here ordered the Texas Department on Aging…
Can Texas's TABC presume a seller 'knowingly' sold alcohol to a minor just for not checking ID?
The Attorney General concluded no. The statutes let the Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspend or cancel a license only when the seller 'knowingly' sold alcohol to a minor, and Texas courts have read…
Can a Texas commissioners court remove people it appointed to a county district board?
The Attorney General concluded that members of the governing boards of a county emergency services district, a rural fire prevention district, and the Comal County Water Oriented Recreation District…
Can a Texas school district pick a bidder who isn't lowest because they're local or grow the tax base?
The Attorney General concluded that an independent school district could not award a competitively-bid construction contract to a bidder who was not the lowest based on the bidder's residence or…
In Texas, who picks the doctor for county jail inmates: the sheriff or the commissioners court?
The Attorney General concluded that only the county commissioners court could contract with a licensed physician to provide medical services to county jail inmates, because the commissioners court…
Is a charity casino-night fundraiser with real betting legal in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that people playing the casino games at the described nonprofit casino-night fundraiser would be committing the Penal Code offense of gambling, because paying for…
Did Texas's boxing admission tax apply to pay-per-view fees cable subscribers paid to watch fights at home?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the pay-per-view fees cable television subscribers paid to watch a live boxing telecast at home were not 'admission fees' under section 11(b) of the Texas…
Could a Texas county judge preside over probate of a will the judge drafted, witnessed, or that involved the judge's former law practice or relatives?
No single answer applied to all five situations. Constitutional disqualification required a direct financial interest, prohibited relationship to a party, or prior service as counsel in the same…
Can a Texas bail bond board make license applicants post cash instead of property deeds for their security deposit?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Smith County Bail Bond Board could not adopt a rule forcing an original bail bond applicant to make the required security deposit only in the form of a…
Can a county attorney defend a hospital district employee in a criminal case, and can the district pay the legal bills?
Mostly no. The Attorney General concluded that article 2.08 of the Code of Criminal Procedure barred the Harris County Attorney from representing a Harris County Hospital District employee in a…
Are auctioneer services 'professional services' that a Texas city can exempt from competitive bidding?
Not automatically. The Attorney General concluded that, except for the services covered by the Professional Services Procurement Act, a municipality decides in the first instance whether particular…
Could the Texas police licensing commission require peace officers and jailers to be U.S. citizens?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education exceeded its rulemaking authority when it adopted 37 Texas Administrative Code section…
Does a Texas life sentence ever end before the person dies, such as when they are paroled?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a life sentence is exactly what it says, a sentence that continues until the convicted person's death. A person serving life may become eligible for parole,…
Can a Texas juvenile board raise the salaries of its own county judge members?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the juvenile board for Castro, Hale, and Swisher counties had no authority to set the salaries of its members. Human Resources Code section 152.0411(c) gives…
Can a Texas court reporter sign an exclusive contract to handle all of one company's deposition reporting?
The Attorney General concluded that neither Texas statutes nor the Texas Supreme Court's certification rules prohibited a certified shorthand reporter from contracting with a company, often an…
Can the Texas low-level radioactive waste authority base its impact-assistance fund on planning and implementation fees?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the board of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority cannot adopt a rule designating a percentage of its planning and implementation fees for…
Can a Texas insurance company credit rehabilitation fees against its premium tax?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the fees the State Board of Insurance collects from an insurer it rehabilitates under article 21.28-A of the Insurance Code are not 'examination and…
Can Texas cities, counties, or school districts deposit their funds in savings and loan associations?
No. The Attorney General concluded that municipalities, counties, independent school districts, and state institutions of higher learning are not authorized to deposit funds in the demand accounts…
Can part-time doctors and nurses at a Texas county jail get state indemnification and a free legal defense?
Not under chapter 104. The Attorney General concluded that health care professionals employed by or under contract with a county jail are not entitled to state indemnification or legal…
Does Texas's voluntary paternity procedure give a child the same rights as the old voluntary legitimation procedure?
Yes, in substance. The Attorney General concluded that when Texas renamed its Family Code procedure from 'voluntary legitimation' to 'voluntary paternity' in 1989, it did not change the substance.…
Can a Texas commissioners court take the county treasurer out of the process of investing county funds?
Not entirely. The Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court cannot remove the county treasurer from investing county funds, because the treasurer is the chief custodian of county money…
Does a Texas city council violate the Open Meetings Act if a majority signs a letter without an open meeting?
It can. The Attorney General concluded that when a quorum of a governmental body agrees on a joint statement (such as a letter expressing the 'undersigned majority's' position) about public business…
When a Texas tax abatement expires, does the newly taxable property count as 'new property value' for the county's effective tax rate?
No. The Attorney General concluded that improvements built on property while it was exempt under a tax abatement agreement are not 'new property value' under section 26.012(17) of the Tax Code when…
Can a budget rider change the competitive bidding rules that Texas school districts must follow?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Rider 30 to the 1991-1992 General Appropriations Act was unconstitutional. The Texas Constitution lets an appropriations bill cover the single subject of…
Can the Texas engineering board still give a reduced license fee to engineers 65 and older after a $200 fee increase?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers could treat the $200 fee increase added in 1991 by House Bill 11 (section 13B of the Engineering…
Does 'physician' in the Texas Occupational Therapy Title Act include chiropractors?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the word 'physician' in sections 15(b)(6) and 27 of the Occupational Therapy Title Act (V.T.C.S. art. 8851) meant a person licensed to practice medicine by…
Can a Texas navigation district grant a tax abatement on land the county already abated, and for how long?
Only for a limited window. The Attorney General concluded that under chapter 312 of the Tax Code, the Property Redevelopment and Tax Abatement Act, only a county or a municipality can start a tax…
Can someone with a felony conviction run for alderman in a Texas type B general law city?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Election Code's bar on candidacy by anyone finally convicted of a felony (and not pardoned or released from the resulting disabilities), section…
Does the Texas prompt-payment law for government contracts cover construction projects?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that article 601f, V.T.C.S., the statute setting deadlines for state agencies and local governments to pay vendors (and for vendors to pay their subcontractors…
Who has to transport juveniles between detention and court, and can the county judge order the sheriff to do it?
No one is required by statute. The Attorney General concluded that no Texas law puts a mandatory duty on any officer or office to transport juvenile defendants between the detention center and…
What is a Texas sheriff responsible for when a private company runs the county jail?
Very little, directly. The Attorney General concluded that when a county contracts with a private vendor to run a detention facility, the sheriff's only duty is the 'regular, on-site monitoring' the…
Can Texas health agencies inspect a hospital that's already licensed and medicare-accredited?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the exemption in section 222.024 of the Health and Safety Code, which spares a medicare-certified or nationally accredited hospital from duplicate 'licensing…
Can a restaurant in a dry Texas county give customers a free glass of wine or cook with alcohol?
Giving away wine is treated as a sale, so it is barred. The Attorney General concluded that a restaurant in a dry area that hands patrons a 'free' glass of wine with their meal violates section…
Who is allowed to run a bingo game in Texas, and where can they hold it?
Only the kinds of organizations listed in article III, section 47(b) of the Texas Constitution, churches, synagogues, religious societies, volunteer fire departments, nonprofit veterans and…
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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.