State AG Opinions
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When Oregon's Measure 47 capped property taxes in 1997, did the cap apply to taxes a city had already pledged to repay its bonds, or were those bond taxes still exempt from the cap?
The AG concluded that taxes legally dedicated to paying bonded debt at the time of assessment were exempt from the Measure 47 cap, that urban renewal tax-increment revenues qualified for the…
Could a Louisiana political subdivision invest public funds in a mutual fund organized as a Massachusetts business trust that holds Treasury repurchase agreements?
At the time of this 1997 opinion, the AG concluded yes, a political subdivision could invest in such a mutual fund, including one with multiple share classes, as long as all classes represented an…
Can a county employee (an electrical inspector) lawfully serve at the same time as a member of the Board of County Commissioners that ultimately oversees the County Manager who supervises that employee?
Yes, with limits. The AG concluded that N.C.G.S. § 14-234 does not bar the arrangement because the Board of Commissioners had not been involved in hiring the electrical inspector (the County Manager…
Was the Darlington school district’s 1978 special act still in force and facially constitutional?
A Deputy AG said the cited 1978 act had not been repealed or amended and that its text showed no apparent constitutional defect. The letter did not address an unstated, specific challenge to the act.
What fees did Kentucky county clerks charge to record a bail bond and its release in 1997?
The AG calculated an $18 total for accepting, filing and processing the bail bond addressed in the opinion, including a $3 lien tax and $1 reasonable postage charge. It calculated $12 for accepting,…
If a fire district tax referendum ends in a tie vote, has the tax been approved or rejected, and when can a new election on the same tax question be held?
A tie vote means the tax was rejected. State law requires a majority of votes cast in favor before a county can levy the special fire tax. Because the tax was rejected, the two-year statutory bar in…
Under North Carolina's 1997 Public Records Law, could a person inspect another customer's municipal water and sewer billing records?
The 1997 opinion said those records were public under the law then in force and found no applicable statutory exemption. It said the statute did not distinguish a customer requesting their own…
Can North Carolina's Parks and Recreation Trust Fund give grants to towns and counties for park master plans, site plans, comprehensive system plans, or citizen surveys, or only for actually buying land and building park facilities?
Only for buying land and building park facilities. The AG concluded that § 113-44.15(b)(2)'s 30% local-government allocation must be spent under criteria patterned after the federal Land and Water…
Could Beaufort legislators replace transportation committee members and change the committee’s size?
An Assistant AG found no statutory term or fixed committee size and said the legislative delegation appeared able to change membership and replace appointees. The committee still had to fairly…
Can a Maryland town annex a distant piece of land by connecting it to town limits with just a thin strip of highway?
The opinion concluded that Maryland's requirement that annexed land be 'contiguous and adjoining' generally does not allow a town to annex a distant tract by connecting it with only a narrow highway…
Can a city council meet with a state transportation agency on less than seven days' notice if the delay was caused by waiting on legal advice?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG advised that Newark's city council could meet with DelDOT officials on 24-hour notice, rather than the usual seven days, because stating that the delay…
Did a South Carolina county have to supply a dispatcher when a city was short staffed?
A Deputy AG said the staffing arrangement should be resolved by contract between the city and county. He cited authority for contracted county services inside a municipality and did not identify an…
If a New York county has already passed a nuisance abatement law, can a town inside the county still pass its own nuisance abatement law, or is the town preempted?
Yes, the town can pass its own. The AG concluded that a county nuisance abatement law does not preempt a town nuisance abatement law, as long as the town has not formally transferred the…
If voters file a petition with double the required signatures asking for a vote on changing the village name on a date other than the regular village election, can the village board still push the question to the next regular election?
No. The AG concluded that once a qualifying petition is filed under Village Law § 9-912 requesting an off-cycle referendum, the board of trustees has no discretion. The referendum must be held no…
Could a South Carolina nonprofit director cast a board vote through a proxy?
A Senior Assistant AG read the nonprofit corporation law to require a director acting as a director to be present for the vote to count. He distinguished proxy voting by members and discussed a…
What standards governed a South Carolina agency placing a fence or enclosure on state land?
The 1997 informal opinion said an enclosure of public land had to serve a public purpose and primarily benefit the public, comply with any dedicated use and applicable law, and be assessed on its…
Can North Carolina cap the share of commercial fishing licenses available to out-of-state fishermen, either through a residency-based lottery or a 'limited entry' system that allocates a fixed percentage of licenses to non-residents?
The opinion said a residency-based cap on commercial fishing licenses would likely violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause unless residents faced the same restrictions. It noted existing…
Can North Carolina Marine Patrol officers cite civilians for violating state fisheries laws if the violation occurred on the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base?
No. The AG concluded that the federal government accepted exclusive jurisdiction over Camp Lejeune in 1941 through a series of letters from the Acting Secretary of the Navy to the Governor of North…
Could Sumter County transfer control of its jail from county government to the sheriff by ordinance?
The 1997 informal opinion advised that the local law putting Sumter County jail custody with the county governing body remained effective and that only the General Assembly could change that…
Could Horry County voters petition for a referendum to repeal a hospitality-fee ordinance?
The 1997 informal opinion said the cited 15-percent petition procedure applied to certain debt ordinances pledging the county’s full faith and credit, not the hospitality-fee ordinance described. It…
Could a creditor garnish a Connecticut state employee’s expense reimbursement as wages?
No. The AG concluded that reimbursements for expenses a state employee incurred were not compensation for services. The wage garnishment statute reached earnings, so the described non-reportable…
Could an officer handcuff a person during an investigatory stop before establishing probable cause to arrest?
The 1997 informal opinion said handcuffing during a stop had to be judged by the need for officer safety and all the facts. Courts often treated handcuffing as an arrest, but had allowed it during a…
Could South Carolina child-support enforcement funds be used to pay a county vehicle-storage bill?
The 1997 letter quoted a statute restricting child-support funds to related enforcement activities and pointed to a decision treating those funds as supplemental. It declined to determine whether…
Could a South Carolina town pay Christmas bonuses to its mayor and council members without an ordinance or other payment obligation?
The 1997 informal opinion concluded that Santee could not pay the bonuses if it had no legal or contractual duty to do so. On the facts stated, the payments appeared to be extra compensation after…
Could a South Carolina county use zoning to restrict adult businesses or ban public nudity?
The 1997 informal opinion described court decisions upholding Richland County zoning and licensing rules for sexually oriented businesses while warning that a total public-nudity ban would likely…
Did a South Carolina teacher have to surrender or renew a teaching certificate while serving in the General Assembly?
No. The 1997 letter said legislators who held teaching certificates were exempt from recertification requirements during their elected terms and their certificates remained valid. It rejected a…
If a New York school board member hands their resignation to the district superintendent, is it valid the moment the board votes to accept it?
No. The AG concluded that submitting a letter to the local superintendent and having the board vote acceptance does not satisfy either Education Law § 2111 (which requires endorsement by the…
Can a Texas county pay an official's legal fees for fighting an election contest?
A county attorney asked whether Frio County could reimburse its sheriff for the attorney's fees he ran up defending an election contest after a close primary runoff. The Attorney General said no,…
Could a South Carolina public school place video cameras in classrooms for surveillance?
The 1997 informal opinion said video-only classroom surveillance would likely survive Fourth Amendment and federal interception-law challenges because the author found no reasonable expectation of…
Could one person serve on both a Charleston County constituent school board and the county park and recreation commission?
The 1997 informal opinion said a court would most likely find simultaneous service prohibited by South Carolina's dual-office rule. The author treated both positions as public offices exercising…
After Craven County v. Boyles, do local school districts have a claim to the parking and library fines that UNC campuses collect, or are those fines structured differently from the civil penalties Craven County reached?
The opinion said UNC library fines would fall outside the school-fund provision insofar as they were imposed for purposes other than punishment, but it could not predict a court's ruling with…
Did Connecticut’s gaming revolving-door rule bar a former regulator from joining a tribal gaming commission?
The AG said the gaming revolving-door statute did not prohibit the division’s former director from heading the tribal gaming commission because that commission was a tribal government regulator, not…
Who paid a South Carolina county jail for holding prisoners arrested by a town police department?
The 1997 informal opinion repeated earlier AG views that a municipality generally bore costs for prisoners within municipal-court jurisdiction, while the county bore costs for state-law charges…
Could a Kentucky public board close a meeting just to speak privately with its lawyer?
The AG said no in this 1997 opinion. A public body could not close a meeting merely because its lawyer was present or legal advice was confidential; the discussed matter had to involve proposed or…
Could a South Carolina police department require its city to allow civilian ride-alongs?
The 1997 informal letter did not decide the merits of Seneca’s discontinued ride-along program. It said whether to permit it was a municipal policy choice left to the discretion of the municipal…
Are HUD-approved mortgage lenders exempt from Oregon's interest-rate caps on all their loans, or only on FHA-insured loans?
The 1997 opinion read ORS 82.025(2) as exempting a HUD-approved lender from the interest-rate cap on any of its loans, not just federally insured mortgages. It overruled a 1985 advice letter that…
Could an Edgefield County sheriff use jail vending-machine proceeds for recreation benefiting inmates?
The 1997 informal opinion said vending proceeds could be public funds and a program benefiting the whole inmate population appeared permissible, subject to local rules. It recommended accounting for…
Could a South Carolina magistrate issue an arrest warrant over a returned payroll check from an out-of-state employer?
The 1997 informal opinion said South Carolina’s fraudulent-check offense applied only to checks made or delivered in the state. Unless the out-of-state employer’s check was actually given or…
After a South Carolina magistrate finds no probable cause, is the defendant released from jail and from the bond?
The 1997 Attorney General opinion said the defendant must be released from physical custody after a no-probable-cause preliminary hearing, but the finding is not an acquittal. It concluded that bond…
Do New York drivers' auto insurance policies have to cover damage they cause to rental cars from Hertz, Avis, and similar companies, and can those rental companies charge them for damage beyond the $100 deductible?
Yes for coverage, no for excess charges. The AG concluded that the Insurance Department correctly read the collision damage waiver (CDW) statute (L 1988 ch 784) to require auto insurers to provide…
Do the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who review Medicaid treatment plans for the New York Department of Health get state-funded legal defense and indemnification if they are sued?
Only those listed in Public Health Law § 14. The AG concluded the Medicaid prior-authorization consultants are independent contractors, not state employees, so they do not qualify under Public…
Can a Texas agency's advisory council be given real power over the agency's rules?
A state senator asked the Attorney General whether Government Code section 417.0041, which lets fire protection advisory councils control rule changes at the Commission on Fire Protection,…
Could South Carolina’s parks and tourism department create a nonprofit heritage-corridor foundation and lend it staff?
The 1997 letter said the department had implied authority to create the described nonprofit and contract with it for tourism and historic-development work. Agency employees could assist for that…
Did South Carolina’s 1995–96 budget override the annual per-diem limit for county social-services board members?
The 1997 informal opinion found strong support for applying the budget act’s broad per-diem provision to county DSS advisory boards despite the older statute’s annual limit. It retained earlier AG…
Could South Carolina bar election to The Citadel’s Board of Visitors for a term extending past age 75?
The 1997 AG opinion predicted that a court would uphold the age restriction under equal protection and would find the board members outside the federal age-discrimination statute as policymaking…
If a town gives five days' notice of a meeting instead of the required seven, but sixty residents still show up, is that a FOIA violation that undoes the meeting?
Yes, a technical violation, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the Town of Laurel's newspaper notice giving only five days' advance warning of a Planning Commission meeting, instead of…
After Martin v. Condon, could South Carolina counties prohibit video-poker cash payouts by local vote?
The 1997 informal opinion read Martin as blocking local criminal bans while a statewide gambling-law exemption made the payouts legal. The author thought the Legislature would likely need to repeal…
Could Connecticut require an agricultural research board to manage private trusts under state deposit rules?
The AG said Connecticut’s state deposit and oversight rules could not control the Agricultural Experiment Station board when it acted as trustee of private charitable trusts. Once trust money was…
Did finishing a deferred or suspended misdemeanor sentence erase the conviction from a Washington criminal record?
No. The Attorney General concluded in 1997 that completing conditions did not authorize deletion of the conviction record. A deferred sentence could lead to withdrawal of a plea and dismissal for…
How did South Carolina’s Attorney General view later-term abortion under state law in 1997?
In 1997 the Attorney General asserted that a procedure he called “partial birth” abortion after fetal viability was unlawful unless absolutely necessary to preserve the pregnant patient’s life or…
Does the Lava Hot Springs Foundation own a special hot-springs water right that escapes Idaho's prior appropriation and Department of Water Resources regulation?
No. The Foundation managed the hot springs only through ordinary appropriative water rights subject to Title 42 and Department of Water Resources oversight, and could grant easements for waste-water…
Could a Louisiana assistant district attorney also serve part time on a parish hospital board?
Yes. In 1997 the Louisiana AG concluded that a full-time assistant district attorney could also hold a part-time appointive seat on the Terrebonne Parish Hospital Service District board. The dual…
Could a South Carolina city pay a YMCA to provide recreation programs to residents?
The 1997 informal opinion said recreation was a valid public purpose and the city could contract with the YMCA for those services if the contract limited the YMCA to recreation programs in its…
Could one person sit on both Barnwell County’s hospital board and transportation committee?
The 1997 letter concluded that simultaneous service would most probably violate South Carolina’s dual-office rule. It treated hospital and nursing home board membership as a public office and relied…
Could Spartanburg suspend a police officer based on a domestic-violence protection order without a criminal charge?
The 1997 informal opinion said reliance on a protection order after an adversarial factual hearing could legally support suspension, assuming no employment document changed the city manager’s…
Can a New York town pass a local 'right to farm' ordinance that requires every deed conveying property in the town to include a specific paragraph notifying buyers of farming activity?
No. Real Property Law §§ 290 et seq. establish the State's recording requirements, and § 333-c already imposes an agricultural-district disclosure obligation. A town cannot add a…
Does a New York village have the authority, or even an obligation, to establish fire lanes between privately owned buildings where fire department access would otherwise be difficult?
Yes. The State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code (9 NYCRR § 1161.2) requires premises that are not readily accessible from public roads to have access roads or fire lanes so fire department…
Can a New York town board create an official town letterhead and adopt a written policy that controls who can use it and for what purpose?
Yes. The town board has both general administrative authority (Town Law §§ 60(1), 63, 64(23)) and home rule authority (Municipal Home Rule Law § 10) to establish official letterhead and a use…
When a New York school district sells off undeveloped surplus property that lies entirely within a village, does the village's subdivision review process apply, or is the school district immune as a separate government body?
The village's subdivision regulations apply. Under the balancing test from County of Monroe v City of Rochester, a 'governmental' label is not enough; the school district must show legislative…
Can a New York city pass a local law refusing to issue building permits, certificates of occupancy, or other property-related licenses to owners who are delinquent on real property taxes?
No. New York's Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code Act only authorizes local laws imposing higher construction standards, not unrelated payment conditions. Subdivision and site-plan conditions…
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