GENERAL 

AS 1.~. ,/ IA/, 

HonoraM John II. Crudgiagton 

Counfy Auditor 

Potter County 

Amarillo, Texan 

Dear Sirs Opinion HO. O-6805 

Bar uss of th. surplus in 

the Road and Bridge Fund. 

Your request for an opinion from this depw+mmt is as follouss 

"House Bill 850, listed %n Vernon's Tour Session Lam of the 49th Legisle 

turo, states that ,any county which does not levy l road and Ekidge tax, and 

has a surplus an its B. & B. Fund. may use the arurplus as it sees fit. 

wArticlo 66758 10 provides that all monies reaeived by the county fromthe 

registration fees on motor vehioles shall be used for the construction and 

maintenanos of lateral ma&s of the aounty. 

"Since Potter County hrs a low mileage of lateral roads it levies no road 

tax and has an l ooruing youly surplus from the proceeds of fines and registration of motor vehicles. 

"Is it within the discretion of t.Wa Cmmiosioners~ Court to we the surplus 

in its R. & B. Fund under tha prevailing statutes?" 

Article 6675~4-10, V.A.C.S., is m follows: 

RApportionment of funds. - On ?donday of eaah week each County Tax Colleotor 

shall deposit in the County bpository of his county to the credit of the 

County Road and Bridge F'und an amount equal to one hundred (1%) per oent 

of net oollectione made hereunder during the promding mek until the amount 

80 deposited for the current oalendar year shall Bave reached a total sum of 

Fifty Thousand (#50,000.00) Dollars 

"Thereafter, and until the amount so depotiteq for the year shall have rsached a total of One Eundred Seventy-Five Thousand ($176, 000.00) Dollars, he 

shall doposit to the aredit of said Pund on Monday of eaoh week an amount 

equal to fifty (6%) per cant of collections made hereunder during the procoding week. 

"Thereafter, he shall m&a no further deposits to the credit of said Fund 

duriag that oalsndar year. All collaotions made during any trek under the 

provisions of this Aet (Arts. 6675a-1 to 66751-14; P.C. Art. 879a) in exoess of the amounts required to be deposited to the arodit of the Rti and 
Hon. John W. Crudgington, page 2 (O-8805) 

Bridge Fund of his county shall be remitted by each County Tax Collector 

on each Monday of tha succeeding weak to the State Highway Dapartmont 

together with carbon oopies of each license receipt issued horounder during the preooding wok. Ha shall also on Monday of each week remit to 

thm Deprrimant as now provided by law, all transfer fers and chauffeurs' 

license fees oolloctod by him during the pracoding week, together with 

carbon copies of all receipts issued for said feea during the week. 

"He shall also sccompany all remittances to the Highway DqarWnt with 

a complete report of such collaotions made and disposition made thereof 

the form and contents of the naid report to be prescribod by the State 

Highway Department. None of the monies so plaoad to the credit of the 

Road and Bridge Fund of a county shall be used to pay the salary or ooms 

pensation of any County Judge or County Commissioner, but all said monies 

shall be used for the construction and maintenance of lataral roads in 

such county under the supervision of the County Enginasr, if there ti one, 

and if there is no such enginsep# then the County Commissioners' Court 

shall have authority to oomnand the sarvicoo of the Division Engineer of 

the State Highway Dopartmant for the purpose of supervising the construotion and surveying of lateral roads in their rospeotive counties. All 

funds alloortod to the counties by the provisions of this Act (Arts. 6675~~L 

to 6675~~14; P. C. Art. 807%) may be used by the counties in the payment of 

obligations, if any, issued and incurred in the construotion or We improvement of all roads; including State Highways of euch counties and diatriots therein; or the improvomant of the roads oamprising the County Road 

System." 

The above mentioned statute expraesly provides how motor registration fees coming into the County shall b, expended. It also provides that 

suoh feee ba placed in the Road and Bridge Fund of the County. 

House Bill 850, 49th Legielaturo, providea as followsa 

"sm. 1. In all counties of this Stat0 having surplus funds from revenues 

derived from motor vrhiola registration fee8 which each said county is authorized to retain under the laws of the State of To-r, and whnrherm my such 

county or aounties arm not levying 4 tax for the building and maintenauco 

of roads and bridger for such county or oounUes, the Conmisoionere' Court 

of said county or oounties ir helvby authorirod to transfer such aurplua 

funds to any other county fund or funds which ruoh Court may from time to 

time designate, and to oxpond such surplus funda for any other UPO or 

purpose. 

"Sec. 2. The fact that rome oountier with large populations have only a 

rslaikivoly small number of miler of oouuty road* to maintain and are now 

annually oolleoting and retaining motor registration foer in an aggrogato 

amount aaveral times aa large a8 Is necessary to sufficiently maintain tb 

roads and bridgee in rruch countlee orartor an anergonoy and ma imper6tivo 

public neosrrritiy that the Constitutional Rule reauiriag bills to be read 

on three #everal dq,v in each Rouro k #uepondod,:and a&id Rule ir hereby 
Hon. John PI. Crudgington, page 3 (o-6805) 

suspended, and that this Act shall take effect and be in force from and 

after its passage, and it is so enacted.~ 

Seotjon 9 of Articl* 8 of our State Constitution prescribe* the mmxI 

imum rate of taxes for goneral purposes, for road* 6nd bridges, for juries, and 

for permanent improvements, r*spcotiv*ly. Thi* department ha8 repeatedly held 

that the Commissioners 1 Court has no authority to transfer money frnm one constftutional fund to another, or to expend for on* purpooe, tax money raised ost@nsfbly for another purpose. Suah ruling8 6r* brs*d on the following authorities: 

Carroll v. Williams, 202 S.W. 504; Ault v. Hill County, 116 S.W. 359; Henderson 

v. Bock, 262 S.W. 94; 11 Texas Jurisprudsnoo, p. 609-611. 

'1M, quote the following language from Carroll v. Williams, supras 

“Going to the real gist of the main issue befan us, section 9 of article 8 of 

out *tat* Constitution, *up=*, inhibits any and all transfers of tax money from 

one to another of the several 016sses of funds therein authorized, and, as a 

sequsnos, the expenditure, for one purpose therein defin*d, of tax money raised 

ost*nlibly for anothor such purpose. The inrmediat* plrpos* in so prescribing 

a separate maximum tax rat* for each of the ol*soet of purposes there enumerated 

is, no doubt, to limit, accordingly, the amount of taxen which may be raised 

from the people, by taxation, declaredly for those ewsral purposes or alataes 

of purposes, respectively. But that is not all. The ultimate and practical and 

obvious design and purpore and legal effect is to inhibit oxo*ssive expenditures 

for agy such purpos- or olass of purposes. By n*c*asaxy implication, said provisions of section 9 of article 8 war* d*signed, not mer*ly to limit the tax rat* 

for certain th*r*in designated purpoae8, but to require 6hat any and all money 

raised by taxation for any such purpo** *hall be applied, faithfully, to thrt 

particular purpose, as needed therefor, and not to any other purpos. or 1.181 

whatsoever. . . . 

"True, the Constitution does not s6y, in so may words, thatmoneyraised by 6 

county, oity, or town, by taxation for one such purpose shall nwer be expended for any other purpose -- not wen for another of the five general olanse* 

of purposes defined and approved in said section 9 -- tit that wu think, le its 

plain and cortrin muning and legal effect. Th* very definitions of tIloso 

rworrl cl*ss*a of purpof*s, and the daclarrtion of authority to tax th* peapl* therefor, renpediv*ly, aoupled, 68 theyaro, in each instance, with a limitation of the tax rate for that alass, must hare ken pr*dioated upon the 

expectation and intent that, a* a matter of aommon honesty and fair d*aling, 

fu money taken from the p*opl* ostensibly for any such specified purpos* shall 

b l xpandad, as n**d*d, for that purpose *lone, a* well 6~ that th* tax rato 

for that particulrr olrss, in UTy one you, *hall not oxaeed the prescribed 

IMdlllUUl. 

WConversely, and upon a like tours* of reasoning, it must hav* b*rn int*nd*d 

that *xpenditures for my *uch d*signat*d purpose *hall nw*r inolude tax mon*y 

in *xc*** of the proceed* of the muimum tax rrt* pr*sorib*d by th* Conrtitution 

for that purpose- 
Eon. John vi. CFztdgington, paga 4 {C-5805] 

"Unless our above-stabad oon~~?2usions are &LX%%, thers ms no gcod season for 

making the constiixtional Stitation upon .'I:h.r~ o&id five seprratte designated 

tax rates c~pmifics~ the limitation upon t%le taxing p+ww might as well hme 

been oouched in general terms spp:Paab9.s to all tha designated purposes aollsotively, although prawzibing an uggreg&h ~?~simuui tax r&r applicable to 

any and al.1 such purposes in the di~wetfon of govom-nfng body. In atbar wopds, 

unless said aonstitutionai prxris.ions were designed tr: @mit the application or 

expandfturs of each such t&x fund fgl th,v iwpaifio purpose or purposoo fox- whioh, 

deolaredly, it is r+iead, as wall. ae %;o limf*. the tax rate 'therofo~~ th. sresult in the Vny of protecting the people Igainst exhor'bitant taxes could hava 

been attained more simply wd mere oonvaniently VJr making, in said section 9 of 

artiols 8, one general Iim%tation upi,n the ta.xi,ng power with referrnce to a11 

five such classes of purposes, collect&sly, ,thereby leaving the governing body 

frwe to apply any and aPI suoh funda n.Jro?dicg t;s iti~ G%W judgmwt, provided 

only that no portion thereof sha:LY br applied to ar~r extraneous purposs, not 

included by the tirms of that ~e?cti~ze"