E ATTORNICY GENENAL
OF TEXAS

Honorable T. M. Trlmble First Assistant State Superintendent Department Of Education Austin, Texas

Dear Sir: OpinionNo. O-7035 Re: Whether independent schooldistrict may pay a county tax assessor-collector241; 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 consideredby thisDepartment. We quote from your request as fcllcws:

"TheKlngsville IndependentSchoolDistrict has recently divorced itself from the City of Kingsville in order that itmay assess and collect its own taxes. Pursuant to this dlvcrcement the school district has recently appcinted the County Tax Assessor--Collectoras Asse:;i~rCollector of Taxes for the Kingsvllle Independent SchoolDistrict.

"The statutory fee does not yield sufficient remuneration to justify the County Assesscr-Collectcr to do the work. If the CountyAssesscrCollector is paid a straight salary,we interpret the statute to require a bond double the amount of the estimatedannual collections of taxes. This makes the bond of sufficient size to be parctically prohibitive. The School Board is oonsidering the question of paying the CountyAssessorCollector the statutory fee of 2% f'cr assessing and collecting,and In addition pay clericai help inhis office 8 salarywhich togetherwith the fee will justify the CountyAssessor 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!nclerical help?"Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 2 0-7035

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

"Article2792 (2%2) County or city assessor and collector for independentdistrict.

"Whena majority of the Board of Trustees of
an independentdistrict prefer to have the taxes of their district assessed and collectedby the county
assessor and collector, or by the city assessor and collector, of an incorporatedcity or town in the limits ofwhich the schooldistrict, or a part thereof is located, or collected onlyby the county or city tax collector, same may be assessed and collected, or collected only, as the casemay 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 schooldistrict for which such taxes have been collected. The property of such districts having their taxes assessed and collectedby the county or city assessor and collectormay 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 furnishedby said district and shallprepare the rolls for said district in accordancewith the assessment valueswhich have been equalliedby a Board of Equalization appointedby the Board of Trustees for that purpose. If said taxes are assessed by a specialassessor of the Independentdistrict and are collected only by the city or county tar collector, the city or county, tax collector In such cases shall accept the rolls preparedby the special assessor and approvedby the Board of Trustees as provided in the precedingArticle. When the county assessor and collector is reouired to assess and collect the taxes on Independent schooldistricts 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 incorporatedcity,
or town, as hereinbeforeprovided, isrequired to
assess and collect the taxes of independentschool districts the Board of Trustees of such school district may contractwith the governing body of said city~fcrpayment 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." (Underscoringcurs)Honorable T. M. Trimble, page 3 O-7035

Under the above-quoted statuteand 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 inquestion, one (1)per cent for assessing and one (1)per cent for collecting same.

We have been unable to find any statutoryauthority which would authorizeKingsvllle IndependentSchoolDistrict 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

ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS

By s/wm. J. Fanning Wm. J. Fanning Asslstant
WJF/JCP/wc

APPROW FF.B5, 1946 s/Carlcs C. Ashley FIRST ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/BWS Chairman