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.
No Texas opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Can a Texas city enforce its development rules on a water district building or rebuilding a dam, or does state law preempt that?
Mostly not preempted, the AG concluded. A House committee chair asked whether the City of Austin could apply its development ordinances to the Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement…
Could a Texas county or city, under a COVID disaster order, stop a second-home owner from occupying their property or limit short-term rentals?
Largely no, the AG concluded. A House committee chair asked whether a local government under an emergency declaration could prevent a second-home owner from occupying the property or limit occupancy…
Can a Texas appraisal review board make you protest your property taxes by videoconference instead of in person during COVID?
No, the AG concluded. A state representative asked whether appraisal review boards could shift property-tax protest hearings to videoconference during COVID-19, and about related notice rules. The…
Can a Texas county judge regulate pawnshop fees, hold periods, or customer limits through a COVID disaster order?
Mostly no, the AG concluded. A House committee chair asked whether the Dallas County Judge could issue emergency orders regulating pawnshops, after a county order changed pawn service fees, set a…
During COVID, could a Texas gun dealer accept a driver's license whose expiration date was extended by the Governor's order?
The AG gave limited guidance and deferred to the ATF. A state representative asked how the Governor's COVID-19 extension of expired Texas driver's licenses affects firearms dealers, because the…
Can a Texas county or city seize private property during a locally declared disaster?
No, the AG concluded. The Hood County Attorney asked whether Government Code section 418.108 lets local governments commandeer private property when operating under a local disaster declaration. The…
Can a Texas county sheriff donate asset-forfeiture money to a nonprofit that helps provide mental health and victim services?
Likely yes, the AG concluded, with conditions. The Schleicher County Attorney asked whether the sheriff could donate forfeiture funds under Code of Criminal Procedure article 59.06 to a nonprofit…
Does the 2019 windstorm-insurance law apply to TWIA's earlier reinsurance, and can its board act with vacancies?
The AG answered the legal questions and declined the factual ones. A state senator asked several questions about whether the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association complied with recent laws. The AG…
Does a Texas constable automatically resign by telling people privately he's running for sheriff and collecting petition signatures?
Likely not, the AG concluded. A district attorney asked whether the constitutional resign-to-run rule (article XVI, section 65) made a Kenedy County constable automatically resign after he told…
Can a Texas commissioners court hold one public-comment period for the whole agenda and limit how long each speaker talks?
Yes to both, the AG concluded. The Blanco County Attorney asked how Government Code section 551.007, which requires certain governmental bodies to allow public comment on agenda items at open…
Can a Texas business claim the disaster property tax exemption for COVID-19 economic losses if its property wasn't physically damaged?
No, the AG concluded. Section 11.35 of the Tax Code gives a temporary property tax exemption for property at least 15 percent 'damaged by the disaster' declared by the Governor. The Chair of the…
Who sets a Texas district court coordinator's salary, the judge or the county commissioners court?
Both have to agree, the AG concluded. Government Code section 74.104 says district judges determine reasonable compensation for their court coordinators, subject to the commissioners court's…
Can the Texas Optometry Board still regulate an optometrist who works under a physician's direction?
Yes, in most respects, the AG concluded. Occupations Code section 351.005(a)(2)(B) keeps the Optometry Board from interfering with a physician's right to direct a person under the physician's…
Can a Texas city or county shut down gun stores under a local disaster or emergency order?
No, the AG concluded. As COVID-19 spread in March 2020, some Texas cities and counties declared local disasters and issued orders closing non-essential businesses, and some of those orders did not…
Does a Texas county's inmate phone commission go to the sheriff's commissary or the county general fund?
The county general fund, the AG concluded. Washington County's jail used to sell prepaid phone cards through the commissary, which the sheriff controlled. Under a new system, the phone service…
Does a Texas real estate inspector need a plumber's license to do a sewer-line camera inspection?
Likely no, the AG concluded. A real estate inspector's license under Occupations Code chapter 1102 lets the inspector give an opinion on the condition of a home's plumbing systems, and the AG read…
Can a Texas city impose its own reporting rules on pawnshops that buy used goods?
Mostly no, the AG concluded. The City of College Station's ordinance made secondhand dealers, including pawnbrokers, electronically report purchases of used property to police and hold the property…
Who sets the salaries for a Texas multicounty court at law's reporter and administrator?
The commissioners courts, not the judge, the AG concluded. The 1st Multicounty Court at Law serves Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan counties, and its budgeted staff salaries had swung wildly. The Nolan…
Can a Texas school district buy land outside its boundaries to build a school?
Not under an express grant, and the rest is uncertain, the AG concluded. Laredo ISD wanted to replace Cigarroa Middle School but could not find suitable land inside its boundaries, only a parcel…
Can a Texas nonprofit that leases a public building claim the historic rehabilitation tax credit?
Generally yes, with conditions, the AG advised. Texas gives a franchise tax credit for rehabilitating certified historic structures, administered by the Historical Commission and the Comptroller.…
Does Texas regulate a vehicle depreciation benefit product if you pay for it in cash instead of financing it?
No, the AG concluded. A depreciation benefit product is a vehicle add-on that, after a total loss, pays the buyer a credit toward a replacement vehicle equal to the gap between what they paid and…
Does the 180-day deadline to fill a school board vacancy apply to the Harris County Department of Education?
Yes, the AG concluded. The Harris County Department of Education is the last Texas county school district still operating under repealed former chapters 17 and 18 of the Education Code, which it is…
Can a Texas appraisal district keep a 'one entity, one vote' method for choosing its board after House Bill 1010?
Probably not, the AG advised. A county appraisal district is run by a five-member board appointed by the local taxing units (the county, cities, school districts, and others) that participate in it.…
How do you repeal a special county road tax in Texas?
The AG laid out a two-part procedure. A special road tax is a county tax for maintaining county roads, adopted under Transportation Code section 256.052 after a petition signed by at least 200…
Can a Texas county refuse to register your car for unpaid fines even without a DMV data-sharing contract?
Yes, the AG concluded. Transportation Code section 502.010, the 'County Scofflaw' law, lets a county tax assessor-collector (and the DMV) refuse to register a vehicle when the owner owes the county…
What does Texas law require before a court can seize or order the destruction of a dog that attacked someone?
The AG answered three questions about the dog-attack procedures in Health and Safety Code chapter 822. First, a 'sworn complaint' that triggers a seizure warrant under section 822.002 does not have…
Can a Texas river authority charge property owners or create a taxing district to fund dam repairs?
The AG gave a split answer. After two Guadalupe River dam failures drained Lake Wood (2016) and Lake Dunlap (2019), a state senator asked how the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority could pay to…
Does Senate Bill 22 stop the Texas State Employee Charitable Campaign from listing abortion providers or their affiliates as eligible charities?
Yes, the AG concluded. The State Employee Charitable Campaign lets state workers give to approved charities through automatic payroll deductions; a Policy Committee decides which charities are…
Can a Texas city spend hotel occupancy tax money on a visitor center owned by a chamber of commerce?
Probably yes, the AG advised, but it depends on the facts. A district attorney asked whether the City of Big Lake could use municipal hotel occupancy tax revenue to repair a visitor information…
Which formula decides how Texas hands out county road grants from the SB 500 transportation fund?
It depends on the award date, the AG advised. A state representative asked which distribution formula applied to a $125 million supplemental appropriation that the Legislature put into the…
Can a for-profit company run a whole-body (willed-body) donation program in Texas?
Partly, the AG advised, and only with the Anatomical Board of Texas in the loop. The chairman of the Anatomical Board asked whether a commercial company like Science Care Corporation could run a…
Can a Texas county sheriff impound stray livestock in an open-range county?
Yes, the AG advised. A state representative asked, on behalf of the Presidio County Sheriff, whether the estray laws (the rules for handling stray livestock) apply in an open-range county, where…
Can a Texas credit services organization help a consumer get a loan that isn't a payday or car-title loan?
Yes, generally, the AG advised, though whether any particular deal is legal is a fact question. A state representative asked whether chapter 393 of the Finance Code lets a credit services…
When a Texas city annexes land along a county road, must it annex the whole road too?
Yes, the AG advised, even when the annexation started as a landowner petition rather than a city-driven move. A county attorney asked whether section 43.106 of the Local Government Code, which says…
Can a justice of the peace release arrest affidavits that could identify a child sex-abuse victim?
Not without protecting the child's identity, the AG advised, though the precise reconciliation is a court's call. A criminal district attorney asked whether probable cause affidavits likely to…
Can a Texas city's dangerous-dog ordinance override the state 30-day rule or appeal-bond amount?
Mostly no, the AG advised, because a home-rule city ordinance cannot conflict with state law. A House committee chair asked whether several Dallas City Code dangerous-dog provisions clashed with…
How must a Texas county pay an attorney appointed to fill in for a recused district attorney?
By the county's fixed fee schedule, not an open-ended opt-out, the AG advised, and only an attorney appointed after the DA actually steps aside counts as a pro tem. A county auditor asked several…
Can a Texas jail let a contractor post a bail-bond information signboard inside the facility?
Probably yes, the AG advised, but no law requires the jail to allow it. A state representative asked whether the ban on bail bond sureties soliciting business inside a jail stops a third-party…
Can a Texas sheriff pay a deputy a salary stipend out of jail commissary funds?
Possibly, and the call is the sheriff's to make in the first place, the AG advised. A district attorney asked whether the Hunt County sheriff could use county jail commissary funds (money generated…
Can a Texas court order a defendant's rearrest without a hearing for violating pretrial bond conditions?
Likely yes, the AG advised. A district attorney asked whether a trial court could, without a hearing, sign an arrest warrant for a defendant who was released on pretrial bond conditions when…
Can a Texas county treasurer sell abandoned property through an online auction?
It depends on which sale, the AG advised. A county attorney asked whether a county treasurer could use an online auction site to sell unclaimed property under Chapter 76 of the Property Code, which…
How is a Texas university professor's unused vacation pay calculated after leaving an administrative position?
On the administrative salary only, the AG advised. The president of Texas Southern University asked how to pay out accrued, unused vacation leave for a professor who had served in administrative…
Does the constitutional ban on excessive fines apply to Texas, and how do courts decide if a fine is excessive?
Yes, it applies, but the AG could not give a test for when a fine crosses the line. A state representative asked, after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 decision in Timbs v. Indiana, several questions…
Can a nurse anesthetist administer anesthesia in Texas without a physician delegating it?
No, the AG advised, a certified registered nurse anesthetist has no independent authority to give anesthesia without a physician's delegation. The president of the Texas Medical Board asked three…
Can one person serve as both city manager and police chief in a Texas home-rule city?
It depends on how the city sets it up, the AG advised. A district attorney asked, for the City of Ranger, whether one person could hold both the city manager job and the police chief job in a…
Does a Texas criminal district attorney's office have to follow the county purchasing agent's rules?
Only some of them, the AG advised. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney asked whether her office had to comply with purchasing procedures and rules adopted by the county purchasing agent.…
Who controls how Texas pretrial intervention fees are spent, and can they pay staff salaries?
The commissioners court controls the spending, the AG advised, and the fees can pay staff who run the program but only for that purpose. A county auditor asked whether a prosecuting attorney could…
Can a Texas navigation district require an easement for utility lines crossing over its land?
Likely yes, with conditions, the AG advised. The Jackson County auditor asked whether the county's navigation district could require an easement for new and existing aerial utility lines that cross…
Is there a time limit or dollar cap on Texas county economic development loans and grants?
No fixed statutory cap, the AG advised. A state representative asked whether the ten-year and amount limits that apply to county tax-abatement agreements also limit the loans and grants a county…
Does the Texas Board of Nursing have to seal criminal history in a disciplinary order it already issued?
Yes, the AG advised. The Executive Director of the Texas Board of Nursing asked what the Board must do when a court issues a nondisclosure order sealing someone's criminal history, given that the…
Can a Texas state board member receive a grant from a program their own agency administers?
No, the AG advised. The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board asked whether a 2017 change to the state contracting law let one of its own board members receive $15,000 in financial…
Does an arbitration award force a Texas state agency to pay a manufactured-home consumer claim in full?
No, the AG advised. The Manufactured Housing Division of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs runs a Consumer Claims Program that pays manufactured-home buyers for actual damages…
Can a collection agency hired by a Texas county charge a credit card fee on court debts?
Likely yes, if it acts as the county's agent, the AG advised. A county auditor asked whether a private attorney or collection agency that contracts with a county to collect delinquent court debts…
Can a Texas county spend subdivision bond money on private roads without taking them over?
Yes, the AG advised, and spending the money does not force the county to adopt the roads. A county attorney asked how a county may use the proceeds from a subdivision road-and-drainage bond, the…
Can Texas allow DNA testing of human remains found at a historic cemetery site?
Likely yes, the AG advised. The Texas Historical Commission asked whether it had authority to permit destructive testing of human remains for research, including taking DNA samples to help identify…
Is it still illegal for a Texas board to use a walking quorum after the Doyal ruling?
Yes, the AG advised: the conduct still violates the Open Meetings Act, and civil remedies still apply. In early 2019 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in State v. Doyal, struck down one criminal…
Can TxDOT still add to the North Tarrant Express toll project after the 2017 contract deadline?
Yes, the AG advised. Two state senators asked whether the Texas Department of Transportation could still enter a new facility agreement under the North Tarrant Express Comprehensive Development…
Can a Texas city use zoning to keep gun stores away from schools or limit where they can open?
No, the AG advised. A state senator asked whether Texas cities may use zoning and similar regulations to restrict where firearm and ammunition stores can operate, citing proposals to ban such sales…
Can a convicted felon run for office in Texas after finishing their sentence?
Not automatically, the AG advised. A county attorney asked whether someone convicted of a felony becomes eligible to run for office in Texas just by completing their sentence and getting their…
Do Texas insurers have to pay out-of-network emergency room claims on time, and can they be penalized if they pay late?
Partly, the AG advised. Two state representatives asked whether both the deadlines and the penalties in the Insurance Code's prompt-pay provisions (chapter 843 for HMOs and chapter 1301 for PPOs)…
Browse Texas opinions by topic
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.