Mrs. Peyton Burke 

County Auditor 

Falls County 

Marlin, Texas 

Dear Mrs. Burke: Opinion No. O-6948 

Re: Authority of the Commissioners' 

Court of Falls County to transfer surplus funds from the 

Rermanent Improvement Fund to 

other funds for specified purposes if voters consent by 

election. 

Your letter of recent date requesting an opinion from this 

department on the above subject matter is as:follows: 

"iI would like to have your opinion on the following question: 

Would a County Commissione,rs 1 Court have the legal right to 

transfer surplus money from the Permanent Improvement Fund to 

other funds for specified purposes; namely, for the ,purchase 

of right of way for a state highway, or for the purpose of 

supporting the county's share in paying County Agricultural 

Agents and County Home Demonstration Agents if the people of 

the county signified their desire that such transfers be made 

by means of an election?" 

We are also in receipt of your letter in answer to our request 

for additional information concerning the transfer. The letter 

is as follows: 

"In reference to my request for an opinion from your office 

regarding the .transfer of surplus money in the Permanent 

Improvement Fund to other funds for specified purposes, I would 

like to state that an election on this specific issue is 

contemplated; but at the same time it has been proposed that 

the tax reallocation for all funds be voted on separate ballots. 

The surplus funds now in the Permanent Improvement Fund is 

needed in the General Fund for the purpose of paying the County 

Agricultural Agents and the County Home 'Demonstration Agents in 

1946 9 while extra income will be necessary in the Road and Bridge 
-_ 

Mrs. Peyton Burke, page 2, o-6948 

Fund for the purchase of right of way. 

the people of Falls Count7 

Therefore, if possible, 

these specified purposes.' 

wish to use this surplus money for 

We are herewith enclosing a copy of our Opinion No. o-6477 which 

answers your question concerning the tax.reallocation election. 

In the case of Carroll v. Williams, 202 S.W. 504, the Supreme 

Court laid down the following rule: 

"Going to the real gist of the main issue before us, section 9 

of-article 8 of our state Constitution, supra, inhibits any 

and all transfers of tax money from one to another of the 

several classes of funds therein authorized, and, as a sequence, 

the expenditure, for the purpose therein defined, of tax money 

raised ostensibly for another such purpose. The immediate 

purpose in so prescribing a separate maximum tax rate for each 

of the classes of purposes there enumerated is, no doubt, to 

limit, accordingly, the amount of taxes which may be raised from 

the people, by taxation, declaredly for those several purposes 

or classes of purposes, respectively. But that is not all. 

The ultimate and practical and obvious design and purpose and 

legal effect is to inhibit excessive expenditures for any such 

purpose or class of purposes. By necessary implication said 

provisions of section 9 of article 8 were designed, not merely 

to limit the tax rate for certain therein designated purposes, 

but to require that any and all money raised by taxation for any 

such purpose shall be applied, faithfully, to that partidular 

purpose, as needed therefor, 

whatsoever." 

and not to any other purpose or use 

Based upon the above authority this department has repeatedly 

held that the Commissioners 1 Court was without authority to 

transfer monies from one constitutional fund to some other fund. 

It will be noted that the Supreme Court said in Carroll v. 

Williams, supra, that section 9 of Article VIII inhibits 

"any and all' transfers of tax money from one fund to another. 

We know of no authority whereby an election may be held to 

determine whether or not transfers of Surplus money in S 

constitutional fund may be made. Reallocation elections 

operate only prospectively. Therefore, it is our opinion that 

the Commissioners' Court of Falls County does not have the 

authority to transfer surplus money from the Permanent Improve- 
. 

Mrs. Peyton Burke, page 3, o-6948 

ment Fund to other funds even if the voters give their consent by an election. 

'Yours very truly, 

AlTORNEY GEN73AL OF TEXAS 

s/ J. C. uavis, Jr. 

By 

J. C. Davis, Jr. 

..Assis tant 

BY 

s/ John Reeves 

John Reeves 

JR:LJ/cg 

Encl. 

APPROVED Dec. 5, 194.5 

a/ Carlos .C. Ashley 

FIRST ASSISTANT 

ATTORNEY GENERAL 

APPROVED: Opinion Committee 

By BWB, Chairman