E ATTORNICY GENENAL 

OF TEXAS 

Honorable T. M. Trlmble 

First Assistant State Superintendent 

Department Of Education 

Austin, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-7035 

Re: Whether independent school district may pay a county tax assessor-collector 241; for asses-. 

sing and collecting its taxes 

and in addition thereto pay 

clerical help in his office. 

Your request for opinion has been received and oarefully considered by this Department. We quote from your request as fcllcws: 

"The Klngsville Independent School District 

has recently divorced itself from the City of 

Kingsville in order that it may assess and collect its own taxes. Pursuant to this dlvcrcement the school district has recently appcinted 

the County Tax Assessor--Collector as Asse:;i~rCollector of Taxes for the Kingsvllle Independent School District. 

"The statutory fee does not yield sufficient 

remuneration to justify the County Assesscr-Collectcr to do the work. If the County AssesscrCollector is paid a straight salary, we interpret 

the statute to require a bond double the amount 

of the estimated annual collections of taxes. 

This makes the bond of sufficient size to be parctically prohibitive. The School Board is oonsidering the question of paying the County AssessorCollector the statutory fee of 2% f'cr assessing 

and collecting, and In addition pay clericai help 

in his office 8 salary which together with the 

fee will justify the County Assessor and Collector 

to do the work. 

"This legal question then presents itselfis the School Board au'horized to pay the County 

Assessor-Collector of Taxes the statutory fee, al-d 

in addition to employ an? pay for hl!n clerical help?" 
Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 2 0 -7035 

Section 2 of Rouse Bill 474, Acts of-the 49th Leglslature of Texas, 1945, reads as follows: 

"Article 2792 (2%2) County or city assessor 

and collector for independent district. 

"When a majority of the Board of Trustees of 

an independent district prefer to have the taxes of 

their district assessed and collected by the county 

assessor and collector, or by the city assessor and 

collector, of an incorporated city or town in the 

limits of which the school district, or a part 

thereof is located, or collected only by the county 

or city tax collector, same may be assessed and 

collected, or collected only, as the case may be, 

by said ocunty or city officers, as may be determined 

by the Board of Trustees of said independent school 

district, and turned over to the treasurer of the 

independent school district for which such taxes 

have been collected. The property of such districts 

having their taxes assessed and collected by the 

county or city assessor and collector may be assessed at a greater value than that assessed for 

CftY, county and State purposes, and in such cases 

the city or county tax assessor and collector shall 

assess the taxes for said district on separate 

assessment blanks furnished by said district and 

shall prepare the rolls for said district in accordance with the assessment values which have been 

equallied by a Board of Equalization appointed by 

the Board of Trustees for that purpose. If said 

taxes are assessed by a special assessor of the 

Independent district and are collected only by the 

city or county tar collector, the city or county, 

tax collector In such cases shall accept the rolls 

prepared by the special assessor and approved by the 

Board of Trustees as provided in the preceding Article. When the county assessor and collector is 

reouired to assess and collect the taxes on Independent school districts they shall resnective& 

receive one (1) ner cent for assessinn and one 

7.1) uer cent for collectinn same; and <hen the 

assessor and collector of an incorporated city, 

or town, as hereinbefore provided, is required to 

assess and collect the taxes of independent school 

districts the Board of Trustees of such school 

district may contract with the governing body 

of said city~fcr payment for such services as 

they may see fit to allow, not to exceed four (4) 

per cent of the whole amount of taxes collected _ 

and received." (Underscoring curs) 
Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 3 O-7035 

Under the above-quoted statute and under the facts 

stated, it is cur cpinicn that the county tax assesscr-ccllectcr is entitled to receive as fees for assessing and cclletting the school taxes in question, one (1) per cent for 

assessing and one (1) per cent for collecting same. 

We have been unable to find any statutory authority 

which would authorize Kingsvllle Independent School District 

to pay the salaries of any clerical help in the County Tax 

Assessor-Collector's cfflce and we therefore specifically 

answer that portion of your question in the negative. 

Very truly yours 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

By s/wm. J. Fanning 

Wm. J. Fanning 

Asslstant 

WJF/JCP/wc 

APPROW FF.B 5, 1946 

s/Carlcs C. Ashley 

FIRST ASSISTANT 

ATTORNEY GENERAL 

Approved Opinion Committee By s/BWS Chairman