. 

December 7, 1949 

Honorable A. C. Winborn 

District Attorney 

Harris County 

Houston, Texas 

Opinion No. k-954. 

Re: Liability of flood control 

and navigation districts for 

motor vehicle registration 

fees and sales taxes. 

Dear Mr. Winborn: 

You request our opinion on the following question: 

-. 

_. 

“Are the Harris County Navigation District and 

the Harris County Flood Control District. legally liable 

for the one per, cent (1%) Motor Vehicle Retail Sales 

Tax, also are these districts legally liable for the payment of the registration’fees o* license tax on motor 

vehicles ,owned and operated by them,? ” 

We appreciate the excellent brief submitted with your 

request and agree with your conclusion. 

By Section 2, Article VIII of the Texas Constitution. the 

Legislature is authorized to exempt public property used for public 

purposes from taxation. In pur.suance to this authorization the Legislature has exempted all property, whether real or personal. belonging exc+sively to this State, or any political subdivisionthereof. 

Art. 7150,~sec. 4, V.C.S. 

The districts in question were created and incorporated 

under laws enacted pursuant to Section 59, Article XVI of the Texas 

Constitution, and are political subdivisions of the State. Lower Colorado River Authority v. Chemical Bank and Trust Co., 134 Tex. 

326 190 S . W . 2d 48 (1945) I n fact, Section 59 Article VIII express+. 

ly siates ‘which districts’s’lrali be governmenial agencies and bodies 

politic. ” 

You state in your question that the motor vehicles are 

owned and operated by the districts in question, To be exempt they 

have to be both owned by a political subdivision. that is, ‘public 

property” and used exclusively for public purposes. If these districts are operating these motor vehicles in the furtherance of the 

purposes for .which they were created then the motor vehicles are 

exempt from all taxation. 
;p,98 Honorable A. C. Winborn. Page 2 (V-955) 

The Supreme Court of Texas in Lower Colorado River 

Authority v. Chemical Bank and Trust Co., supra, in construing 

The validity of Section 4a, Article 7150, V.C.S., stated in part: 

‘(5) Nor can the force of Art. XI, Sec. 9. of theA 

Constitution of this state, be destroyed in this case by 

any application of the doctrine of ejusdem generis. It 

is contended that under that doctrine the fact that the 

words ‘all other property devoted exclusively to the 

use and benefit of the public’ follow the language ‘public buildings and the sites therefor. fire engines and 

the furniture thereof, and all property used, or intended for extinguishing fires, public grounds’ limits the 

application of the exemption to public buildings.and 

grounds and hnything used to fight fires. We do not believe the framers of the Constitution ever intended ‘that 

the exemption should be so narrowly applied, otherwise 

the purpose of the exemption wbuld.be largely-defeated. 

To apply the doctrine of ejusdem generis in its strict 

sense would mean that government in Texas could engage m the -senseless process of taxing itsell, the net 

result of which would be but to take its own money out 

of one pocket for ‘the purpose of putting it into another,- 

less the cost of assessing and’collecting the tax. Obviously that procedure could never accomplish anything 

but an idle expenditure of public funds. See State of 

New Mexico v. Locke. 29 N. M. 148. 219 P. 790, 30 A. 

L.R. 407. (Underscoring ours.) 

‘To illustrate, parking meters are now maintained 

in nearly every city of’any importance to assist in providing funds with which the cities may purchase and operate fire fighting machinery, own public grounds, erect 

public buildings and otherwise perform their functions. 

To the extent of the revenues they yield, the meters relieve the cities ‘of the necessity of raising those funds 

by general direct taxation. Therefore, to tax them would 

mean that what is taken by taxation, plus the cost incident to the orocess. would have to be made un in some 

other~formbf taxation. Again, road machineiy owned 

and used exclusively by a county in constructing and 

maintaining public roads, trucks, owned by the state and 

used exclusively by it in transporting food and other essential supplies to its eleemosynary institutions and literally hundreds of other Items of personal proper 

owned by the public and used exclusively for public puroses would be liable to taxation at the will of the legislature, merely because they cannot be classified as 

public buildings, public grounds or tnstrumentallties for 

extinguishing tires. (Underscoring ours.) 
’ 

Honorable A. C. Winborn, Page 3 (V-955) 

“Thus this court early and unequivocally denied 

the doctrine that the legislature has the power to tax 

all publtc pr’operty except courthouses, jails, fire fighting apparatus, school buildings, playgrounds, libraries, 

public parks, and the like. It announced in unmistakable 

language that the iegislature is without power~‘to tax any 

property publicly owned and held only for public purposes and devoted exclusively to the use and benefit of 

the public. Yet the Constitution has never been amended either to modify or overrule those clear declarations; nor,~in sb far 9s we are’advised.‘has any attempt 

ever been made’s’0 as to amend it. So’it is not for us 

now to question them. We hold, therefore, that Sec. 4a. 

of Art. 7150, Vernon’s Ann.’ Civ. St.. supra, is void.” 

It’is therefore our opinion that neither the Harris County Navigation District nor the Harris County Flood Control District 

is liable for. the payment of registration fees or license taxes or the 

motor vehicles retail sales or use tax on motor vehicles owned by 

them which are used exclusively for public purposes. 

This office during a prior administration in 1940 rendered Opinion O-2609 in which it held that water improvement districts were not ellempt from payment of motor vehicle license fees. 

This 0pinio.n recognized that such districts were political subdivisions of the State:and were exempt from taxation, but based its holding on the proposition that the license fee exacted for the registration of motor vehicles was not a tax. It cited the case of Atkins v. 

State Highway Department, 201 S.W. 226 (Tex. Civ. App. 1918, error ref. , as the authority for this holding. We have carefully studied this case and find that Atkins was resisting the payment of the 

registration fee on the ground that it was a property tax and was in 

violation of the equal and uniform provision of the Texas Constitution, Article VIII,. Section 1. The court, after a full discussion thereof, held that the’ sum of money which Atkins was required to pay was 

not a tax on ownership, but a license fee for the privilege of operating his automobile on the public highways of the State. It will be 

noted that the court did not state that the license tee was not a%, 

but that it was not a nronertv tax. 

Subsequent thereto the Supreme Court of Texas, in Payne 

v. Massey, 145 Tex. 237, 196 S.W.2d 493 (1946). stated: 

“Article 6698 is a part of Section 2. of Title 116, 

Chapter 1. Vernon’s Ann. Civ. Stat. dealing with the 

regulation and registration of motor vehicles. Under 

such title the State exacts a license or registration fee 

rivile e tax in the nature of a license or 

%ct?st~e%&h’&?%ghways of this State. Blashfield’s Cyclopedia of Automobile Law and Practice, 

Perm. Ed., Vol. 1, Sets. 212, 213. 214.” 
Honorable A. C. Winborn. Page 4 (V-955) 

In Louwein v. Moody. Tax Collector,:12 SrW.2d 989 

(Comm. App. Ivzv) the court referred to the registration statutes 

as imposing a ‘fee’ or ‘tax”. 

We therefore overrule Opinion No. o-2609. 

SUM~MARY 

Neither the Harris County Navigation District ’ 

nor the Harris County Flood Control District is liable 

for the payment of registration fees or license taxes 

or the motor vehicle retail sales or use tax on motor 

vehicles owned by them which are used exclusively for 

public purposes. Tex. Const. Art. VIII, Sets. 2 and 59. 

Art. 7150, Sec. 4. V.C.S. 

Yours very truly 

ATTORNEY GEN-L OF TEXAS 

W. V. Geppert 

Assistant 

W VG/mwb 

.