The Attorney General of Texas 

December 18, 1979 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General 

Honorable Charles Murphy, Director 

Texas Aeronautics Commission 

P. 0. Box 12607, Capitol Station 

410 East 5th Street 

Austin, Texas 78711 

Opinion No. MW-10 4 

Re: Authority of the legislature 

to direct the charging of fees 

through riders to the General 

Appropriations Act. 

Dear Mr. Murphy: 

You have requested our opinion whether the legislature, through a 

rider to the General Appropriations Act, may validly direct the Texas 

Aeronautics Commission to chame a reasonable fee for the publication 

entitled Texas Airport Directory. - 

The commission’s authority to publish the Directory and other such 

publications is found in the general law in article 46c6, subdivision 8, 

V.T.C.S, which reeds in pertinent part: 

The Commission may isme such aeronautical p&lie& 

tions as may be required in the public interest 

This statute includes no specific grant of authority for thi commission 

to set or charge fees for such publications, and statutes are “strictly 

construed against fixing a fee by implication, as regards both the fixing of 

the fee end the officer entitled thereto.” Moore v. Sheppard, 192 S.W.2d 

559, 561 (Tex 1946). Therefore, the commission has no authority under 

article 46c-6, subdivision 8 to set or collect a fee for the Directory. 

However, article 4413(33), V.T.C.S., relates to the charge for sale of 

publications of executive departments and state agencies, and provides in 

section 1 that: 

Any.depertment or agency in the executive branch 

of the state government may, unless otherwise 

specifically directed by statute, set and collect a 

sales charge for DUbliCatiOnS end other Drinted matter 

when SUCK charges are deemed to be in the public 

interest 

P- 324 
Honorable Charles Murphy - Page Two (MW-104) 

(Emphasis added. 

Thus, article 44l3(33) clearly permits the Texas Aeronautics Commission, at its 

discretion end when it deems it in the public interest to do so, to set end charge a fee for 

any or all of the publications authorized by article 46~6, subdivision 8. 

But, by rider to the General Appropriations Act of 1979, the legislature attempts to 

direct the commission to set a fee for the Diectory. The specific language is found in 

article III, at III-8 of the act, end states: 

The Commission is hereby directed to set a reasonable fee for the 

publication entitled Texas Airport Directory. Fun& received from 

sale of the publication shall be deposited to the General Revenue 

Fund 

It is settled law in Texas that a rider attached to a general appropriation bill cannot 

repeal, modify or amend an existing general law. See Attorney General Opinions V-1254, 

V-1253 (1951), and cases cited The legislature cannot make mandatory by a general 

appropriation rider that which the general law makes permissive or discretionary. & 

In Attorney General Opinion MW-51 (19791, the above Opinion V-1254 was relied 

upon, and stated: 

. . . a general appropriation bill may contain any provisions or 

riders which detail, limit, or restrict the use of funds or otherwise 

insure that the money is spent for the required activity for which it 

is therein appropriated, if the provisions or riders are necessarily 

connected with end incidental to the appropriation and use of the 

fun&, and provided they do not conflict with general legislation. 

As ln the case of MW-51, which dealt in this instance with a General Appropriations 

Act rider directing the State Board of Control to set certain minimum and maximum 

pad&g rates, the rider directing the Commission to set e reasonable fee for the Directory 

“neither appropriates nor details, limits or restricts the use of funds.” It is instead a 

general directive to the Texas Aeronautics Commission to take certain affirmative action, 

and it may not validly be included in the General Appropriations Act. 

Furthermore, the language of the rider directing that funds “received from sale of 

the publication shall be deposited to the General Revenue Fund’ conflicts with the general 

law stated in section 3 of article 4413(33), which provides that: 

Money collected from the chalges authorized by this Act shall be 

deposited in the fund from which the costs of printing the 

respective publications or materiels were onginelly pald, end such 

moneys shall be subject to epproprlatlon by the Legislature. 

(Emphasis added. 

P. 325 
Honorable Charles Murphy - Page Three (NW-104) 

SUMMARY 

The Texas Aeronautics Commission has the authority to set and 

charge a fee for its publications issued in the public interest. A 

General Appropriations Act rider directing the Texas Aeronautics 

Commission to set a reasonable fee for the publication entitled 

Texas Airport Directory is invalid since it is an attempt to enact 

general legislation in the appropriations act. 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General of Texas 

JOHN W. FAINTER, JR. 

First Assistant Attorney General 

TED L. HARTLEY 

Executive Assistant Attorney General 

Prepared by Bob Gemmage 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

C. Robert Heath, Chairmen 

David B. Brooks 

Walter Davis 

Bob Gemmage 

Susan Garrison 

Rick Gilpin 

William G Reid 

Bruce Youngblood 

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