ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

GREG ABBOTT 

The Honorable Jeff Wentworth 

Chair, Senate Select Committee on 

Veterans' Health 

Texas State Senate 

Post Office Box 12068 

Austin, Texas 78711-2068 

Dear Senator Wentworth: 

January 4,2011 

Opinion No. GA-0833 

Re: Whether a metropolitan transit authority may, 

under section 451.616 of the Transportation Code, 

charge a withdrawn city for special transit services 

provided to the city's residents with disabilities 

(RQ-0899-GA) 

On behalf of the City of West Lake Hills (the "City"), you ask whether Capital Metropolitan 

Transit Authority ("Capital Metro") has "the authority to charge the City for special transit services 

that Capital Metro provides" to certain residents with disabilities who reside in the City.' 

You explain that Capital Metro was created in 1985 when voters in Austin and other 

surrounding municipalities, including the City, approved of its creation. Request Letter at 1. In 

1987, the Texas Legislature enacted the predecessor to section 451.603 of the Transportation Code, 

allowing certain cities to withdraw from a metropolitan rapid transit authority such as Capital Metro.2 

Pursuant to this statute, the City voted to withdraw effective January 19, 1988. Id. Subsequent to 

the City's withdrawal, the Legislature enacted section 451.610 of the Transportation Code, requiring 

that metropolitan rapid transit authorities "continue to provide transportation services for persons 

with disabilities in a withdrawn unit of election.'" Thus, pursuant to this statute, you tell us that 

"Capital Metro provides special transit services to certain residents with disabilities who reside in 

the City" despite that the City has withdrawn from Capital Metro. Request Letter at 1. 

Alongside section 451.610, the Legislature established a procedure for funding such services: 

The Comptroller shall withhold from the amount of sales and use tax 

revenue refunded to a unit of election that has withdrawn from an 

IRequest Letter at 1-2 (available at http://www.texasattorneygenera1.gov). 

2Act of May 22, 1987, 70th Leg., R.S., ch. 790, § 7,1987 Tex. Gen. Laws 2774, 2777 (amended 1989 &1995) 

(current version at TEx. TRANSP. CODE ANN. § 451.603 (West 2007)). 

3 Act of May 27, 1991, 72d Leg., R.S., ch. 503, § 6, 1991 Tex. Gen. Laws 1766, 1767 (amended 1995) (current 

version at TEx. TRANSP. CODE ANN. § 451.610 (West 2007)). 
The Honorable Jeff Wentworth - Page 2 (GA-0833) 

authority the full amount of the difference between the cost of 

providing services to persons with disabilities in the unit of election 

and the fares charged during the period in which the sales and use tax 

was collected and remit this amount to the authority providing the 

services. 

TEX. TRANsp. CODE ANN. § 451.616(a) (West Supp. 2010). You explain that pursuant to this 

section, the Comptroller is giving a portion of the City's monthly sales and use tax revenue to Capital 

Metro as a reimbursement for the cost of providing special transit services to the City's disabled 

residents. Request Letter at I. Given that sections 451.610 and 451.616 of the Transportation Code 

were enacted in 1991, after the City withdrew from Capital Metro, you question whether these 

statutes are retroactive as applied to the City in violation of the Texas Constitution. !d. at 1-2. 

Article I, section 16 of the Texas Constitution provides, "No ... retroactive law ... shall be 

made." TEX. CONST. art. I, § 16. "A retroactive law literally means a law that acts on things which 

are past." Suharu of Am., Inc. v. David McDavid Nissan, Inc., 84 S.W.3d 212, 219 (Tex. 2002). 

When it enacted sections 451.610 and 451.616 of the Transportation Code, the Legislature imposed 

a new duty on the City to pay for services provided by Capital Metro to the City's disabled residents, 

but it did so only on a prospective, rather than on a retroactive, basis. Only from the effective date 

of the statute onward were withdrawn cities required to fund these services. Withdrawn cities may 

have expected to have no further involvement with such authorities after voting to withdraw. 

However, '" [aJ statute does not operate 'retrospectively' merely because it ... upsets expectations 

based in prior law.'" Quick v. City of Austin, 7 S.W.3d 109, 132 (Tex. 1998) (quoting Landgrafv. 

USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 269 (1994)). No entity has a vested right merely in the continuance 

of present law in relation to a particular subject. Suharu, 84 S.W.3d at 219 (citation omitted). The 

Legislature may change laws so long as it does not destroy or prevent the adequate enforcement of 

vested rights, neither of which it did here. Id. 

The City argues through its brief that the Legislature has impaired the City'S vested rights 

by requiring the City to pay Capital Metro for services provided, which, the City argues, unlawfully 

deprives the City of the use of its sales and use taxes.4 However, a municipality "acquires no vested 

rights against the State." Tooke v. Mexia, 197 S.W.3d 325, 345 (Tex. 2006); Deacon v. City of 

Euless, 405 S.W.2d 59, 62 (Tex. 1966). As a creation of the Legislature, a municipality has no 

privileges or immunities which it may invoke in opposition to the will of its creator. Williams v. 

Mayor of Baltimore, 289 U.S. 36,40 (1933). 

We therefore conclude that sections 451.610 and 451.616 of the Transportation Code are not 

retroactive in violation of article I, section 16 of the Texas Constitution. Capital Metro is not 

prohibited by that constitutional provision from charging the City for transportation servic.es 

provided to the City's residents with disabilities pursuant to the Transportation Code. 

'See Brief from Alan J. Bojorquez, City Attorney at 2 (Aug. 17,2010) (on file with the Opinion Committee). 
The Honorable Jeff Wentworth - Page 3 (GA-0833) 

SUMMARY 

Sections 451.610 and 451.616 of the Transportation Code are 

not retroactive statutes in violation of article I, section 16 of the Texas 

Constitution. Capital Metro is therefore not prohibited by that 

constitutional provision from charging the City of West Lake Hills for 

transportation services provided to the City's residents with 

disabilities pursuant to the Transportation Code. 

DANIEL T. HODGE 

First Assistant Attorney General 

DAVID J. SCHENCK 

Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel 

NANCY S. FULLER 

Chair, Opinion Committee 

Virginia K. Hoelscher 

Assistant Attorney General, Opinion Committee