ram GENERAL 

August 12, 1971 

Hon. Bevington Reed 

Commissioner of Higher Education 

Coordinating Board 

Texas College and University 

System 

P. 0. BOX 12788 

Capitol Station 

Austin, Texas 78711 

Dear Dr. Reed: 

Opinion No. M-927 

Re: Method of calculating the 

amount of funds to be included in determining the 

"net general revenue appropriations to the established public medical 

schools," pursuant to 

Article 2919e-2.1(&)(f), 

Vernon's Civil Statutes. 

Your recent letter requesting the opinion of this office 

concerning the referenced matter states, in part, as follows: 

"The Coordinating Board has under consideration 

proposals to contract with Baylor College of Medicine 

and Baylor College of Dentistry as provided in Article 

2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, and in items 

8 and 9 of the appropriations to the Coordinating 

Board, Texas College and University System, for the 

year ending August 31, 1972, as contained in Senate 

Bill No. 11, 62nd Legislature, Regular Session, 1971. 

The Coordinating Board respectfully requests your 

opinion concerning the method of calculating the rates 

of disbursement of these appropriations. Specifically, 

what amounts of funds shall be included in determining 

. . . the net general revenue appropriations to the 

established public medical schools . . -.' as this 

phrase is used in Section l(f) of Article 2919e-2.1, 

V.T.C.S.?" 

Apposite portions of Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Civil 

Statutes, provide as follows: 

-4521- 
. 

Hon. Bevington Reed, page 2 (M-927) 

"Section 1. Wherever used in this Act, the 

respective terms shall have the indicated meaning 

unless context otherwise requires: 

II . . . 

“(f) 'average annual state tax support per 

undergraduate medical student enrolled at the established public medical schools'-- an amount calculated by dividing the net qeneral revenue aporopriations to the established public medical schools 

for the fiscal year next preceding the scholastic 

year of disbursement by the total number of undergraduate medical students enrolled in those schools 

on October 15 of said fiscal year. 

II 

. . . 

"Sec. 3 .A. In the exercise of the rights, 

powers, and authority described in Section 2 of 

this Act, the Coordinating Board may disburse to 

Baylor College of Medicine, during each scholastic 

year of disbursement, an amount equal to the average annual state tax support per undergraduate medical student at the established public medical 

schools multiplied by the number of bona fide Texas 

resident undergraduate medical students enrolled at 

Baylor College of Medicine: provided, however, that 

the Coordinating Board shall never disburse an 

amount exceeding the amount appropriated by the 

Legislature for this purpose. 

"B. Subject to the limitations described in 

Section 3A of this Act, the Coordinating Board is 

hereby granted the right, power, and authority to 

establish, by contract with Baylor College of 

Medicine, the method by which the above-described 

disbursement shall be accomplished, and may prescribe such reasonable rules and regulations as 

are necessary to ascertain the average annual 

state support per undergraduate medical student 

at the established public medical schools." 

(Emphasis added.) 

-4522- 
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 3 (M-927) 

Section 4 of the foregoing Article gives the Board a 

similar power to contract with the Baylor University College of 

Dentistry. The last sentence of that Section provides that: 

"For the purposes of this section The University 

of Texas Dental Branch at Houston shall be used to 

calculate the average annual state tax support per 

undergraduate dental student." 

Article IV of Senate Bill 11, Acts of the 62nd Legislature, R.S., 1971 (General Appropriations Act for the fiscal 

year commencing September 1, 1971), in setting forth appropriations for the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University 

System, contains the following line item appropriations for the 

next fiscal year: 

“8. 

“9. 

Funding for Baylor College of 

Medicinei in accordance with 

H.B. 586, Sixty-first Legislature, Regular Session, 1969 2,500,OOO 

Funding for Baylor University 

College of Dentistry in accordance with H.B. 586, Sixtyfirst Legislature, Regular 

Session, 1969 1,700,000" 

H.B. 586, referred to in the foregoing appropriations, is now 

Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Civil Statutes, portions of which 

have been set forth hereinabove. 

The term "net general revenue appropriations", is a 

term which appears in the Appropriations Bill for the appropriations to each of the established public medical schools (the 

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Southwestern Medical School at Dallas) defined by Section l(c) of 

Article 2919e-2.1. This term has appeared in these appropriations in all of the fiscal years relevant to the funding of the 

enabling legislation under consideration. The amount represented 

bv the "net ceneral revenue approrxiations” is determined by sub- 

-4523- 
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 4 (M-927) 

tracting from the "grand total" of the educational' appropriations to the respective medical schools such other income as 

the schools are expected to realize. For example, line item 

appropriations to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical 

School at Dallas for the fiscal year ending August 31. 1971, 

aggregated a "Grand Total" of $7,906,406. The Appropriations 

Bill for that year (House Bill 2, Second Called Session, 61st 

Legislature, 1969, page IV-371 indicates that "estimated net 

income" of $666,300 was subtracted from this grand total, 

leaving a "net general revenue appropriation" of $7,240,106. 

The term "net general revenue appropriation" reappeared in the 

appropriations to these two institutions for the fiscal years 

ending August 31, 1969 (House Bill 5, First Called Session, 

60th Legislature, 1968, pages IV-31 and IV-33), 1970 (House 

Bill 2, Second Called Session, 61st Legislature, 1969, pages 

IV-35 and IV-37), 1972 and 1973 (Senate Bill 11, Regular Session, 

62nd Legislature, Pages IV-30 and IV-33). 

The Legislature has consistently used the term "net 

general rev nue appropriation" 

5 

to mean the grand total of the 

educational appropriations to the Dallas and Galveston medical 

schools, less other educational income realized by those institutions. Thus, when the Legislature:utilized the phrase "net 

general revenue appropriations to the established public medical 

schools" in its definition of the statutory rate of disbursement 

to Baylor Medical School, the inescapable conclusion is that the 

1 All of the appropriations set forth in the current appropriations bill for the University of Texas Medical School 

at Dallas are for educational purposes. The appropriations 

set forth in the current bill for the University of Texas 

Medical Branch at Galveston are divided into tv?o portions: 

one for "educational units", the other for "hospital units." 

It seems clear that the Legislature intended that only the 

"educational unit" appropriations, and not "hospital unit" 

appropriations, for the Medical Branch at Galveston should 

be used in determining the "net general revenue appropriations" for that Branch: see the computations set forth at 

pages 6-7, infra. 

2 See footnote 1, supra. 

-4524- 
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 5 (M-927) 

Legislature intended to incorporate by reference the above-mentioned 

sums appropriated to the two public medical schools. Even if a 

narrower interpretation of the phrase were possible, the Lnaislature has declared, in Section 6 of Article 2919e-2.1, that "all 

of the terms and provisions of this Act are to be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes, powers, rights, functions and 

authorities herein set forth." To afford this phrase a liberal 

construction means to give it its "generally accepted meaning, 

to the end that the most comprehensive application thereof may 

be accorded, without doing violence to any of its terms." See, 

for example, Maryland Casualtv Co. v. Smith, 40 S.W.2d 931 (Tex. 

Civ.App. - Dallas, 1931, no writ). 

The meaning affixed to the term, "net general revenue 

appropriations" by the Coordinating Bohrd in its budget requests 

of the 62nd Legislature, although not binding on the Attorney 

General or the Courts, is entitled to great weight. Moorman v. 

Terrell, 109 Tex. 173, 202 S.W. 727 (1918); Slocomb v. Cameron 

I.S.D., 116 Tex. 288, 288 S.W. 1064 (1926): Neubert.v. Chicaqo 

R.I. & G.R.Y. Co., 116 Tex. 644, 296 S.W. 1090 (1927); United 

States v. T.I.M.E., Inc., 252 F.2d 178 (5th Cir., 1958), cert. 

denied, 358 U.S. 810 (1958). 

In its budget request for the fiscal years ending 

August 31, 1972, and August 31, 1973, the Coordinating Board 

quoted the statutory definition of average annual state tax 

support for undergraduate medical students enrolled at the established public medical schools, and ascertained this amount by 

(1) totalling the net general revenue appropriations for educational purposes to the University of Texas Medical Branch at 

Galveston ($7,417,020; this figure is derived by subtracting the 

anticipated income from educational and general funds of $960,897 

from the total of $8,377,917 appropriated for educational units, 

which is the total of line items 1 through 9, found in House Bill 

2, Second Called Session, 61st Legislature, page IV-35) and 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas 

($7,240,106) for the year ending August 31, 1971, as set out in 

that appropriations bill, and (2) dividing that sum ($14,657,126) 

by the minimum number of undergraduate medical students require.3 

-4525- 
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 6 

to be enrolled at the two schools (1,020) to arrive at an average 

annual state tax support for undergraduate medical students of 

$14,370. (3) It noted that 175 bona fide Texas residents were 

expected to enroll at Baylor Medical School in each year of the 

forthcoming biennium, then multiplied $14,370 by 175, and arrived 

at a figure of approximately $2,500,000. The Coordinating Board 

requested this amount for each year of the biennium, and the 62nd 

Legislature provided full funding of this request. 

The necessary conclusion is that the Legislature accepted the Coordinating Board's interpretation of all of the elements 

of the phrase "average annual state tax support per undergraduate 

medical student enrolled at the established public medical schools", 

including "net general revenue appropriations." 

The rate of disbursement established by Article 2919e2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, is clear and unequivocal. 

This general law utilizes the phrase "net general revenue appropriations" in its generally accepted meaning, as established by 

the appropriations to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and the University of Texas Medical Branch 

in Galveston, as well as the executive interpretation of this 

phrase utilized in the budget request of the Coordinating Board, 

Texas College and University System. That the 62nd Legislature 

accepted the interpretation ty the Coordinating Board, and fully 

funded the Coordinating Board's request pursuant to this interpretation, establishes beyond question the meaning which must be 

attached to "average annual state tax support per undergraduate 

medical student enrolled at the established public medical 

schools" as set out in Section l(f), Article 2919e-2.1. 

You are, therefore, advised that the term It . . . the 

net general revenue appropriated to the established public medical schoo1.s . . .'I as this phrase is used in Section l(f) of 

Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, means the 

"Grand Total" of appropriations to the University of Texas 

Southwesteim Medical School at Dallas and the University of 

Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, less such other income as 

may be realized by these schools from educational sources. 

-4526- 
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 7 (M-927) 

SUMMARY 

The term W . . . the net general revenue appropriated to the established public medical schools 

. . . W as this phrase is used in Section l(f) of 

Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, 

means the "Grand Total" of appropriations to the 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at 

Dallas and the University of Texas Medical Branch 

at Galveston, less such other income as may be 

realized by these schools from educational sources. 

Ver$Zuly yours, 

Attor y General of Texas 

Prepared by Austin C. Bray, Jr. 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

Kerns Taylor, Chairman 

W. E. Allen, Co-Chairman 

James McCoy 

Scott Garrison 

Fisher Tyler 

James Quick 

MEADE F. GRIFFIN 

Staff Legal Assistant 

ALFPED WALKER 

Executive Assistant 

NOLA WHITE 

First Assistant 

-4527-