May 15. 1950 

Hon. B. .F. McKee 

County Auditor 

Hidalgo County 

Edinburg;Texas 

Dear Mr. McKee: 

Opinion No. V-1057. 

Re: The authority of counties to 

use anexcess oft the State tax 

remission, over the annual 

bond retirement requirements, 

to build and maintain farmto-market road6,. 

You have requested the opiidon 0% this office on the abovecaptioned matter. 

Section 51 of Article III of the Texas Constitution provides in part as follows’: 

“The Legislature shall have no power to make 

anjr grant or authoriszthe making of any grant of public moneys to any individual. association of individuals, 

municipal or other corporations whatsoever;.provided, 

. . . further; that the,provlsions of this section shall 

not be construed so as to nrevent the grant of aid in 

cases ofpublic calamity.i .(Emphasicadded throughout.) 

Section 10 of Article VIII of the Constitution provides: 

“The Legislature shall have no power to release 

the inhabitants of, or .property in, a~ny county, city or 

town from the payment of taxes levied for State or county purposes, &less itrcase of great public calamity in 

any such county, city or town. when such release may 

be-made by a vote of two-thirds of each House: of theLegislature.“’ 

It is clear that these .ronstitutional provisions themselves would prevent the use of remitted’tax funds for any purpose 

other than the prevention of.public calamities, under the conditions 

set forth in the statutory .grant. unless there is some subsequently 

adopted constltutlonal provision that provides otherwise. 

In Opinion No. O-1276 this office ruled that: 
Hon. B. F. McKee, Page 2 (V-1057) 

,-The calamity clause fin Article 3. Section 51, of 

the Constitution was not intended to provide a vehicle 

for the wholesale transfer of money from one coastitutiooal fund to another. It was written into the Constitution to enable the State as a whole to extend relief to 

those parts of its areas which from time to time might 

be stricken with such calamitous visitations as fire, 

flood, tempest or disease. We think the term ‘public 

calamity’ has the same meaning in Article 3, Section 

51, as in Article 8, Section 10 of the Constitution. In 

the case of Jones P. Williams. 45 S.W. 2d 130, the questiouas to the constitutionality of a tax remission bill 

of state-wide s,cope was before the Supreme Court. In 

that Act the Legislature had found as a fact that the ‘present world-wide economic crisis’ constituted a public calamity. We take the following excerpts from Chief Justice Cureton’s opinion: 

* ‘As stated, the Legislature was of’ the opinion 

that .the present industrial depression was .a ‘great public calamity” within the meaning of Section 10, Article 

8, of the Constitution. With that interpretation of the 

Constitution we cannot agree. The word ‘calamity” indicates ,or suppases a somewhat contiguous state; produced .aot usually by the direct agency of man, ybut by 

aatural causes, such as fire., flood,.teanpes,t, disea6.e:” 

etc. .Webster’s Revised Uuabridged Dictiouary . . . 

“We thixk it clear that it was thus co&mplated 

and intended that levies for State and county.~urpose.s. 

should be kept separate and distinct; snd that taxes collected for county pnrposes should uot be appropriated 

for State uses, nor taxes collected for State purposes 

diverted to county uses.” 

Section .1-a of, Article VIII of the Constitution was amended in 1.948 to provide in part as follows: 

: “Prdvided that in those. counties or political sub-. 

divisions or areas of the State from which tax donations 

have heretofore. been granted, the State Automat16 Tax 

Board shall continue to kvythe full amount of the State 

ad valorem tax for .the duration of such donation. or. until all legal obllgatio~ns heretofore authorized by .the law 

granting such donation or donations shall have been fully 

dischar.ged. .whichever shall first o&r; provided-:tbat 

if suchdomtion toany such county or’political s&di’d- 

*ion is for less than the~fullamount of State advalorem 

taxes so levied, the portio~n of such taxes .retiining over 
Hon. B.. F. McKee, Page 3 (V-1057). , 

,and above su.ch donation 6hall.be retained by said county or. subd{vision.- Sec. 1 a. Ar.t,. 8, adopted. electiou 

Nov. 2. 1948.7. 

After the .ameudment of .Section.l-a, the 51st Legislature enacted Chapter 464, codified as Article 704ga, V’.C.S. Section 10(a) provides in part as follows: 

y(l) :Begianlng in the.year ,195i;atid each year 

thereafter the State Automatic Tax Board created by 

Article 7041 of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texasi 

1925, shall cause to be levied annually in each county, 

political subdivision or other defined area, the full 

thirty cents (30$) State ad.valorem tax for general revenue purpose’s, the proceeds of which heretofore were 

donated and granted by the .Legislat,uye to certain counties, political s.ubdivisionq o,r other. ,defined areas .for 

the purpose of carrying out pndperforming actious of. 

preventing calamities, improving., protecting and xcclamting certain’areas for pnd ,op. betalf of the State as. 

more fully declared in each applicable law or laws making .such donation or grant and said Board shall continue to levy such tax at said rate in each such designated 

area uutil.,the bonds or .other obhgahons of said areas 

authorized or incurred’in connection with the pertormante of such aC&OD on behalf of the State shall have been 

fully pald or discharged or until the expiration date of 

such dohation or grant as Wy be determined from the 

law or laws rziaking such grant or donation, whichever 

shall first occur. . . . 

“(3) The tax assessors and collectors in each of 

such Counties shall continue to assess and collect ,su.ch, 

tax and make the proceeds thereof available to the. douees 

or grantees in the manner provided by the law or laws 

makiugeachsuch grant or..donation. The moneys.thus 

collected by said tax assessors and collectors and.re-. 

ceived by su,ch grantees or donees shall be used~ano accounted for annually as prescribed by the law or laws 

making such grant or donation. 

“(4)’ In those instances where less than the full 

State general ad valore’m tax was granted or donated, 

the oortion of the monev collected in excess ot the a-. 

mot&t donated or grantkd shall be paid over to the governing body of the county or political subdivision from 

which such tax is collected and in the discretion of said 

gpvernlng body shall be us& either for the construction 

and maintenance of F&-m-to-Market Roads or for’Elood 

Control only withiu the county,,,. , . ” 
Hon. R. F. McKee, Page 4 (V-1057) 

Thus. we see that, under both the Constitution and the 

statutes, the.doaated taxes can be used only for the prevention of 

the recurrence of public calamities, under the condition6 set forth 

in the statutory grants. The donation is to continue until the end of 

the statutory grant or untilallobligations are paid, whichever shall 

occur first. 

Mauitestly. the collbtruction and mainteoauce of farmto-market roads ‘would not constitute a prevention of recurrence of 

public calamities within the coqtemplation of the Constitution or 

statutes. 

SUMMARY 

.State ad valorem taxes douated or granted to 

counties to prevent the recurrence of “great public 

calamities+” caused by dkmitous overflows, floods, 

storms, and the like, cannot be diverted to the construction and maintenance of farm-to-market roads. 

APPROVED: 

W. V. Geppert 

Taxation Division 

Joe R. Greenhill 

First Assistant 

Price Daniel 

Attorney Geneial 

FL/ls/mwb 

Yours very truly, 

PRICE DANIEL 

*,:“?rxwGew.i& 

Assistant