,- 

October 17, 1951 ,', 

Hon. 3. W. Edgar, Opinion No; V-1324, 

Commissioner of Education 

Texas Education Agency 

Austin, Texas 

Re:,Authorlty ofTexas Education Agency to pay salaries from the '$20,000 

appropriation in Art. XV 

of' the, currentgeneral 

appropriation Act comparable to the posit&ens 

specified by groups XV,~~ 

XVI, or XVII In the Agency's section of Art. III 

Dear Dr. Edgar: of'the same Act.' 

We quote your letter 'as ~follows: 

," We desire :an opinlon,from your office 

regarding the salary limitations that apply 

in expending the $20 000 appropriated to the 

Texas Central Education Agency in Article IV 

of the Appropriation Act of the Fifty-second 

Legislature. 

'The appropriation to ,the Texas Central 

Education Agency under Article III of the, 

Appropriation Act limits the number of positions that may be classified under groups 

XVII; XVI and Xv with no limitations as to 

number of positions that may be assigned to 

other groups In the classification program. 

'Do these limitations regarding the 

number of positions included in the Departmental Appropriation Act, Article III, apply 

to the $20,000 appropriated to the Agency 

under Article IV of the Appropriation Act?" 

Article III of House Bill 426, Acts 52nd LegSslature, 1951, the current biennial appropriation 

bill, Includes appropriations for the current biennium 

for the Texas Central Education Agency. This section 

begins as follows (Acts 52nd Leg., R.S. 1951, ch. 499, 

p. 1228, at p. 1316): 
Hon. J. W. Edgar, Pee 2 ,:(v-1324) 

"TEXA%C&TR&EDUCATION AGENCY 

~%POUP XVII': l+Blone'to exceed $17,500 

per year. 

"Descriptlk and duties: Serves as Executive Officer 'of the State Board of Education performing thoa~e functions required by 

the Board and by l&w. 

'Qroup XVI:, k-llone,to exceed $11,000 

per year. 

"Descriptlbn'and~dtitles: Under general 

direction,,of the Commissioner of Education, 

directs the activities of several divisions 

performing related iwotlons. 

"8ronp xv: Z--lone to exceed $8,400 

per year. 

“Descrfptton and duties: Under general 

direction oft Asbos,latC Commissioner, directs 

the activities of the ,Mvlslon of Adminlstrative Services, or the ~actlvltles of the Dlvision of Textbooks and InstruCtional Materials." 

Article rV of House Bill 426, au ra at page 

1443, provides for biennial appropriations +-' o be allocated to the public junior colleges of Texas which 

meet the standards and eligibility requirements therein detailed. Section 2 of Article Iv assigns to the 

State Board of Education the duty of formulating rules 

and regulations govern1 

colleges to share In a "& $ 

ellglbllity of public junior 

,309,200.00 biennial appropriation in accordance with certain specified factors. It 

also empowers the CoMnistiloner Of Education to certify 

the eligibility of public junior colleges to share in 

this appropriation upon meeting the requirements of the 

law. Further, It assigns to the Central Education Agency the function of determining whether each eligible 

junior college has complied with all the provisions of 

Section 2. Section 2 concludes With this paragraph: 

"ffom the appropriation made In Section 

1 of this Article, there is hereby allocated 

the sum of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) 

for each of the fiscal years of the biennium 

- 
P Hon. J. W. Edgar, Page 3 (V-1324) 

beginning September 1, 1951, to the Texas 

Central Education Agency for the expense of 

carrying out the functions and responsibllities asslgned~ to that Agency by this Article." 

Groups XVII,~XVI, and'XV, quoted above, are 

the first of some eighteen like provisions found at the 

beginning of theTexas Central Education Agency's section of Article ITI, House Bill.426. These "groups" 

appear without prelate or introduction, preceded only 

by the title, "Texas ~Central Education Agency.’ No 

explanation, summary, or ccncluslon follows these provisions. The following paragraph In the Act contains 

annual appropriation items. The 'groups' create a personnel classification program, but they dO, not appropriate funds. Provislbns in general sppropriatlon bills 

which do not add funds to or take funds away from those 

assigned by the Legislature to the particular use,5 enumerated are known as "non-appropriating" provisions; 

non-appropriating provisions or riders In general appropriation bills are valld~ only when they detail, limit, 

or restrict the'use of funds therein appropriated and 

when they are connected with and Incidental to the a - 

propriations made. 

(1951). 

Attorney General's ~Oplnlon V-125 $ 

House Bill 426 represents a departure in form 

from the pattern of the general appropriation me~asures 

of recetit Legislatures. It had been the recent practice 

to enact separate appropriation bills for the Judiciary, 

the Executive and administrative departments and agencies, the eleemosynary institutions, the inatltutions of 

higher learning, and the public junior colleges;1 In 

1951 the 52nd Legislature put all of these general appropriations into one measure, House Bill 426. This 

Act la divided Into nine Articles, namely Article I, 

Judiciary; Article IT, State Hospitals, Special Schools 

l See'Acts, 5ist Leglslature,,Regular Sessidn, 19?9-- 

House Bill 11 p. 612; House Bill 319,:p. 1133; House 

Bill 320,~ p. i160; House Bill 321,~~. 1070; and House 

~111 322, p. 1208; Acts 50th Legislature, 1947-- 

House Bill 52, p. 685; House Bill 244, p. 639; House 

Bill 246, p. 649; Senate Bill 374, p. 566; and, Senate 

Bill 391, p. 803. 
Hon. J. W. Edgar, Page 4 (V-1324) 

and Youth Development Institutions; Article III, Executive and Administrative Departments and Agencies; Artlcle IV, Public Junior Colleges; Article V, Agencies 

of Higher Education; Article VI, General Provisions; 

Article VII, Saving Clause; Article VIII, Suspending 

clause; and Article IX, Emergency Clause. Had Articles 

III and IV of House Bill 426 been aeparate Acts, as was 

the prior practice, there could be no question but that 

a non-appropriating rider in one Act could have no application to an appropriation in another Act. Here, 

however, all Is a single Act, and, having determined 

that these non-appropriating provisions have validity 

to the extent that they govern expenditure of funds appropriated in House Bill 426, we must yet determine 

their appllcablllty to an appropriation contained in 

an Article other than that In which the non-approprlatlng provisions themselves appears. 

Perusal of the contents of each "Article" reveals that each of the first five Articles of House Bill 

426 covers a distinct field of State government, while 

the last four Articles, and these alone, have general 

application to all of the appropriations in the various 

other Articles of the entire Act. This is shown by the 

repeated words "this Act" found In Articles VI, VII, 

VIII, and IX. Like language is conspicuously absent 

in the first five Articles. 

Evidence that the first five Articles are generally Intended to be mutually exclusive, rather than 

generally controlling one another, is found in the Legislature's recognition of a need to Incorporate identical 

riders in more than one Article.2 There are also riders 

in different Articles which accord different treatment 

to Identical subjects.3 And the Legislature has expressly 

Incorporated the provisions of certain riders from one 

2 See Sec. 8 of Art. I p. 1240, and Subset. (28), Sec. 

2 of Art. 111, p. 1442, Acts 52nd Leg., R.S. 1951. 

3 C!;;p;r-- Subset. (12)g, Sec. 2 of Art. III, p. 1437, 

35 of Art. v, p. 1474, as respects the items 

for whidh receipts must be obtained. 
. . 

/h Hon. J. W. Edgar, Page 5 '(V-1324) 

Article into~,the Hdera of another Article.4' When the 

Legislature has'dane these three ~thlnga, using explicit 

worda to tike'approprlatfons~ln one~,ArtlclB,.subject 

to certain non-appropriating pbovlstons i&a, different 

Article, using the sama"non+approprlating pr~vla;lons 

in more than one Artlcle~~and treating the same general 

subject matter.ln-differentway&, in.other provisions 

of separate Atiticles; we are unzible to alssunu.,that, 

non-appropriatlng.protilaicn ln,one.Artiale.governs~the 

expenditure oFan, approprlatio.n.,m%de in ,a:,,diPferent Article in the absence of~iipeclflc~language showing this 

result, to be'the'Legislature'a .int'entlon. 

.,. 

We Bre sustalne:d ih.this.view by the obvious 

Import of subsection (16)b of Section 2 of~Artlcle III 

(Acts 52nd Leg,, R.S. 1951i,,p. 1439); which~ provides in 

part: 

"The kpproprlaklons hereln, provided 

are,to be construed as'the maxlmuti,sums to 

be ap@ropPlated to and for‘the~ s.+vetial ptiposes named hetiein;,.$nd the. a~outita.are~:$n~.. 

tended to cover, and shall,cover the entire 

cost of the respective.,ltems and the, sarne,~~ 

shall not be supplemented from atiy~ other 

sources; . . .t) 

As the appropriations in Article III are the 

maximum ones allocated'to the purposes of that Article, 

the appropriation& in Article IV must be for other and 

different purposasr. 

If further evidence of the mutually exclusive 

character of Articles III and IVis needed, attention 

is ~invited to the wording of~the last paragraph in Section 2 of Article .IV, 'quoted above, reading: '~ 

"From the~~appropriation made in S~ectlon 1 of this Article, there Is hereby,al-; 

located . . . to the Texas Central Education 

Agency for the expense of carrying out the 

functions and resoonslbllltles asaimed to 

that {Tency by this Article." (Emphasis 

added. 

,- 

4 See Sec. 5(a), Art. I, p. 1240; Sec. 16, Art. II, p. 

1296; Sec. 17, Art. 

27, Art. V, p. 1471. 

II, p. 1297; and Sets. 26 and 
. _. 

Hon. J. W. Edgar, Page 6 (v-1324) 

We can ,vlew the language emphasized above 

only ae a clear-expression by the Legislature that we 

need look only to the provisions of Article IV in determining the purposes for which and the manner in 

which the funds there appropplated may be used. The 

Legislature recognizes that the duties required of the 

Texas Central Education Agency as incidental to the 

disbursement of the $4,309,200.00 appropriated to the 

public junior colleges :nlll entail expenses on the, 

part of the Central Education Agency addltlonal.to 

those provided for in Article III, and the Legislature 

leaves to the sound discretion of that agency a determination of the speciftc uses to which these funds 

~111 be devoted In carrying out these duties. 

SUNNARY 

Funds appropriated to the Texas Central 

Education Agency In Article IV of House Bill 

426 Acta 52nd Leg., R,S. 1951, ch. 499, p. 

1226, to defray expenses Incident to certlfylng the eligibility of public juniors colleges 

to receive State appropriations, are not subject to the personnel alasslficatlon provisions in this agency’s section of Article III 

of the same Act. 

APPROVED: 

Charles D. Mathews 

First Assistant 

Yours very truly, 

PRICE DANIEL 

Attorney General 

-I 

David B. Irons 

Administrative Assistant 

DBI:em