Could Texas Board of Irrigators members recover their actual official travel expenses instead of being limited to the general daily meal-and-lodging cap?

Texas AG Opinion JM-888: Actual Travel Expenses for Board of Irrigators Members

Plain-English summary

The Texas Board of Irrigators asked whether its members could receive their actual travel expenses for official duties despite the general state per diem system and the appropriations act's meal-and-lodging ceiling.

The board's 1979 enabling law originally gave each member $25 for each day of official service plus actual travel expenses. In 1981, article 6813f standardized state-board per diem and suspended conflicting per diem laws to the extent of a conflict.

The Legislature amended the Board of Irrigators provision in 1985. It replaced the fixed $25 amount with compensation set by the General Appropriations Act, but it kept the separate phrase authorizing actual travel expenses. The current appropriations act provided $30 compensatory per diem, actual meals and lodging up to $75 per day, and transportation.

The Attorney General read the 1985 amendment as a deliberate restoration of actual travel expenses for this board. A statute enacted after article 6813f could create a board-specific exception. The later amendment therefore controlled over the general per diem law to the extent they conflicted.

Board members were entitled to reimbursement for actual travel expenses incurred in connection with board service.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1988. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Were board members limited to the general $75 daily meal-and-lodging amount?

No. The opinion concluded that the later board-specific statute entitled members to actual official travel expenses.

Did the General Appropriations Act still set any part of the compensation?

Yes. The amended enabling law used the appropriations act's amount for compensatory per diem.

Why did the later amendment control?

It was enacted after the general per diem statute and expressly kept actual travel expenses while incorporating the appropriations act for compensation.

Did article 6813f disappear entirely for this board?

No. The board-specific provision superseded it only to the extent of a conflict.

Background and statutory framework

Article 8751 created the Texas Board of Irrigators in 1979. Section 3(g) originally authorized $25 per day for official duties plus actual travel expenses.

Article 6813f, enacted in 1981, tied state-board per diem to the General Appropriations Act and suspended conflicting per diem laws. Attorney General Opinion MW-388 (1981) had described its preemptive effect.

In 1985, the Legislature amended article 8751. The amendment tied board-member compensation to the General Appropriations Act but retained the actual-travel-expense language. Attorney General Opinion JM-382 (1985) had explained that a board-specific statute enacted after article 6813f could operate as an exception.

Citations

Statutory authority:

• V.T.C.S. article 8751, section 3(g)
• V.T.C.S. article 6813f, sections 2 and 3
• General Appropriations Act, Acts 1987, 70th Legislature, Second Called Session, chapter 78, article V, section 4(a), at 1082

Prior Attorney General materials referenced: MW-388 (1981) and JM-382 (1985).

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-888
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1988/jm0888.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Obvious character-level OCR errors have been corrected, but minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

April 7, 1988

Mr. S. Dale Ousley
Opinion No. JM-888
Chairman
Texas Board of Irrigators
Re: Per diem for members
1700 N. Congress Avenue
of the Texas Board of
Austin, Texas 78701
Irrigators (RQ-1349)
Dear Mr. Ousley:
You ask whether members of the Texas Board of Irrigators are entitled to receive payment of actual travel expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties. The Texas Board of Irrigators was established by the passage of Acts 1979, 66th Leg., ch. 197, at 430 (article 8751, V.T.C.S.). Section 3(g) of that act governs the payment of per diem and travel expenses to members of the board. Upon enactment, that section read as follows:
(g) Each member shall receive as com- pensation for his or her services $25 a day for each day he or she is actively engaged in official duties in addition to actual travel expenses. (Emphasis added.)
In 1981, two years after the passage of the above- quoted language, in an effort to standardize per diem allowances for all Texas boards and commissions, the legislature adopted an omnibus per diem statute. That act, found at article 6813f, V.T.C.S., reads in pertinent part as follows:
Sec. 2. (a) A member of a state board or commission is entitled to per diem re- lating to the member's service on the board or commission. The amount of the per diem is the amount prescribed by the General
Appropriations Act.
. . . .

Sec. 3. Each law prescribing the amount of per diem relating to membership on a

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Mr. S. Dale Ousley - Page 2 (JM-888)

state board or commission is suspended to the extent of a conflict with this Act. If the General Appropriations Act does not prescribe the amount of per diem to which a member of a state board or commission is entitled by law, the law prescribing the amount of per diem is not suspended by this Act. If a law imposes a limit on the number of days for which a member of a state board or commission is entitled to claim per diem, the limit is not suspended by this Act.
Shortly after article 6813f took effect, the attorney general interpreted its provisions as follows.: the clear intent of article 6813f is to supersede conflicting provisions regarding per diem in statutes such as articles 4413(41) and 4515. In light of this, it is apparent that article 6813f not only should, but must prevail, to the extent of conflict, over these statutes.
Attorney General Opinion MW-388 (1981). Subsequently, the legislature amended the per diem provision for members of the Texas Board of Irrigators as follows:
(g) Each member shall receive as com- pensation for his or her services an amount, provided by the General Appropriations Act, for each day he or she is actively engaged in official duties in addition to actual travel expenses. (Emphasis added.)
Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 795, §9.002, at 2819.
The current appropriations act prescribes per diem allowances as follows:
Sec. 4. PER DIEM OF BOARD OR COMMISSION
MEMBERS. a. As authorized by Section 2 of Article 6813f, Texas Revised Civil Statutes Annotated, the per diem of state board and commission members shall consist of (1) compensatory per diem at $30 per day;
,-
(2) actual expenses for meals and lodging not to exceed $75 per day; and (3) trans- portation.

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Mr. S. Dale Ousley - Page 3 (JM-888

b. If a law enacted after Article 6813f authorizes per diem for members of particular state board'or commission, but does not specify the amount of the per diem, then the amount of the per diem shall be as listed in the preceding paragraph. (Emphasis added.)
General Appropriations Act, Acts 1987, 70th Leg., 2nd C.S., ch. 78, art. V, §4(a), at 1082. This $75 limit on food and lodging expenses conflicts with the "actual travel expenses" allowed by the board's enabling act and gives rise to the current controversy.
In 1985, the attorney general clarified the combined effect of article 6813f, V.T.C.S., and the appropriations act on a particular board or commission's per diem pro- vision.
[T]he basic preemptive effect of article 6813f must depend primarily upon when it was en- acted. As a general rule, when two statutes deal with the same subject, the most recently enacted statute prevails. Consequently, a statute which is passed subsequent to article 6813f and which concerns the amount of per diem a particular board's members are en- titled to receive would create an exception to article 6813f with regard to that board or commission. Because section 4(l) of article V of the current Appropriations Act provides for per diem *[aIs authorized by Section 2 of article 6813f,' it does not apply to per diem established by other statutes, i.e., those enacted after article 6813f. The statute for the particular board and the board's appro- priation would control.
Attorney General Opinion JM-382 (1985).
The 1985 amendment to the Board of Irrigators statute replaced the $25 a day compensatory amount of the original act with the reference to the amount authorized in the general appropriations act. The amendment retained the language authorizing "actual travel expenses." This statutory reference to the appropriations act eliminates any argument that the legislature was unaware of the existence of the appropriations act and the conflict between the "actual travel. expenses" of the board's

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Mr. S. Dale Ousley - Page 4 (JM-888)

statute and the monetary ceiling placed on food and lodging
. . in
..the language
-. of
_ the appropriations
__ act. In our opinion, the amendatory language reflects a legislative intent to reinstate "the actual travel expenses" that had been authorized by article 8751 before the enactment of article 6813f. Consistent with the reasoning of Attorney General Opinion JM-382 quoted above, it is our opinion that the 1985 amendment to article 8751 supersedes article 6813f to the extent of any conflict. Accordingly, the members of the Texas Board of Irrigators are entitled to reimbursement for their actual travel expenses incurred in connection with their service on the board.
SUMMARY
The members of the Texas Board of Irrigators are entitled to receive reimburse- ment for their actual travel expenses incurred in connection with their service on the board.
Very truly yours,

JIM MATTOX
Attorney General of Texas
MARY KELLER
First Assistant Attorney General
LOU MCCREARY
Executive Assistant Attorney General JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY Special Assistant Attorney General RICK GILPIN Chairman, Opinion Committee Prepared by Karen C. Gladney Assistant Attorney General

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