OFFICEOF ‘YE3ATTGBNEY GEX~RAL OFTJ3XAS
AUSTIN Gerald C. Xann Attorney General
Honorable Weaver Moore, Chairman committee on State Affaira TheSenate Auatln, Texas Dear Sir:

0FiniOI.l No. o-3286 herConstltutlonality of Senate IX11 X0. iub ‘~Xxemp’cYngpuperty or Delta Kappa Gamma Society 

## rmmtaxation) You asked the opinion or this department as to the oonetitutionalltp of Senate Bill No, LO8, pending before your Comnlttee of the Forty-seventh Legislature. The Ioaption of this Bill, whloh, for the purposes ot thie opinion, will auffiolently indioate the nature thereof, 

## is a8

## r0ih7et
uaBIIL M BEENTITLED
ANACTexempting iron all City, County, and State ad valorem and oocupatlon taxes, offioe 

## or headquarter8 buildings, and lots purchased for the erection of offloe or headquarters buildings, in the State of Txas, propertx owned by the Delta happa ~l~umeSooistp; providing a saving ; and deolaring an energenoy.” Artiole VIII, Seotion 2, of our Constitution, provides In part as follows:

n TheLegislature may, by general laws, exempt’fAA taxation pub110 property used for public purposes; aotual places 

## 0r reliQioua worship, also any property ownedby a ohuroh or by a strkc:ly religious aooisty for the exolueive uee as a dwelling plaoe for the ministry oi suoh ohuroh or religious soolety, andwhich yieldsHonorable Waver Moors, Page 2

no revenur whatever to suoh ohuroh or religious soolotyi provided that ruoh exemption shall not extend to more property than Is reasonably neoesrary for a dwelling place and ln no event to more than one aore of land1 plaors of burial not held for private or oorporate profit; sll buildings urod rxoluslvely and ownedby persons or aasooiatlons of persons for sohool purposes and the neossrary furniture of all rohoole and property used oxolusively andreasonably nroessary In oonduotlng any awooiatlon engaged in promoting the religious, eduoationsl andphyaioal development of boys, girls, youngmenor youngwomenoperating under a state or national organization of like oharaoter; also the endowment funds of such institutions of learning and religion not used with a view to profit; and whenthe same are invested In bonds 

## ormortgages, or in land or other property which has been and shall hereafter be bought in by euoh’institutions or foreclosure sales madeto satlery or proteot such bonds or mortgages, that such exemptions of suoh land ald property shall continue only for two years after the purohase of ths sameat such sale by suoh institutions **and no**  longer, snd Institutions of purely publio oharlty; andall laws exempting .property from taxation other than the property above meutloned shall be. null andvoid. * It is to be observed that the authority is oonferred upon the Logirlature to exempt property from taxation only with respeot to property of the character and devoted to the purposes expliolty mentioned in Artiole VIII, Section 2, of the Constitution, and, by express provision of the Constitution, such exemptions maybe conferred only by general laws. TheAct which you present for our oonsideration sinD$Lesout a particular organization by name, to-wit, the Delta KappaCanmaSooiety, and attempts to confer upon its property anexemption rr0m taxation. It requires no oitation af authority to establish the proposition that a lawwhich singles out a Tartlcular organization or person by nameis a special law, not a general law. For this reason, you are advised that senate Bill No. 108 violates the grovlsions of Article VIII, Section 2, of our Constitution..

Honorablr Wsaver Moore, Page S

This opinion Is not to be oonatrusd as an expression by thlr department that organizations of thb oharaoter, generally, of the Delta Kappa Gamma Soolety maybe, by general law, exempt from taxation under the provisions of Artlole VIII, Seotlon 2 ot the Constitution. Byreason oi the dirporltion herelnsbove made of Senate Bill No. 108, we find it unneoeesary to express anoplnIon at this time upon the question of the authority of

. the Legislature to exempt from taxation the property of organizations of the type of Delta KappaGamma,by general law. Yours very truly A!ll’ORNEY

GFXEXUL

OFTEXAS By/s/ R. W.Fairchild

3. W.Falrohild Assistant RWF:I&

‘APPROVED

MAR5, 1941 /a/ Gerald C. Mann ATTCRWBY

GZ?ERALOFTEXAS APF’ROVXD

OPRKtOH

CObUITl’EE

BYB. C. B. CHAIRUN