OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

AUSTIN 

GROVER SELLERS 

&rrORNriY OeNERAL 

---------.~..,~ 

Ronorable Alwln E. Rape 

county Attorney 

Oaadalupe County 

seguln, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. o-7246 

Re: Effect or tax redu 

a8 follows: 

ThhsRlmCresk 

heretorore reoeired Stats al 

iug and oollectlng th 

quired by auah Aot. 

levied ior the 

ional 25# tax was 

extra tranep0rtat10n 

vlad for the year 

of Yeduoation has adtkatr aid. The ' 

ta, is whether the Leg001 distridt the right to 

and then to return to its 

receive Stats aid. 

so arises as to whether a school 

ax rate to meet the sxpmueo necssar, without jeopardizing its qualiflCatiOn 

other words, it seems to us that a aorrsct 

he InCent of (this Act) is that within the 

coyered by (the Act) there must be u0 lowering 

that Diatriot that was being crasessed at ths 

bsginulng or that period." 

gee. 2, Article I, Ch. 361, Aots 1945 (Se B. 167, 

49th Leg.), the psrtinsnt portion of the Act in question, reads 

as iollows: 

"no school district shall be eligible to remire 

any type of aid authorized under the prwieions of this 

Act udlefis it shall bs prodding ror the annual support 
y$on. Alwin E. Paape, Page 2 

of It8 sohoole by voting, lsrylng and oollecting sor the 

ourrent aohool year a looal maintenanos Lohool tabt of 

not ls@s than BlSty Centa (50#) on the &a hundred Dollars ($100.00) OS property valuation in the entire dietriot. The property valuations ehall not be less than 

said property la valued for state and oounty purposea. 

The inoome from suoh a maintenance tax in exoeas of the 

required PiSty Cents (SO@) maintenance tax muet Slrst 

be used to rstfre lndsbfsdnees, I.9 any, in the local and 

Equalization (Rural Aid) sahool funds. Aster the lndebtednrss in these iunda, if any, has been retired, the inoomm from this maintenanoa tax in exoeas of the required 

F’iSty Cents (bO$) maintenance tax may be used at the dlsoration of the looal school authorities of the distriat 

for any lawful aohool purpow except lnoreaalng or eupple- 

@&nting any teaoher’s or adminietrabive salaries., Any 

or all malntenanos tax above Fisty Cents (5Ofo may not be 

lnoludad ln the oaloulation of need SOS aid, but &all 

bs reported In the budget with an ltemlesd atatsment of 

it,8 rrpenditaxem. Is the income from the maintenance tax 

above Fifty O@ts (5Og) la not spent aa preaoribed heroin, 

it shell be Included a8 reosipbs in the bud&et. In order 

to comply with the terma of this seatlon, It shall be neoesmry for cmoh school dietriote applying for any type of 

al& authorlmd under tha terms of this Aot, to report all 

v&&uatlons within auoh dietriots, inoluding all oonsolidated 

dlrtriota and anmxsd dietriote, and failure to report all 

euoh vdluatlone ehall prevent suoh dlatriot iron moel~- 

lng eny type OS aid authorized under this aot, 

w* rt * * * * ” 

. OT~ddrraaoriug ours) 

The underactored provision of the above-quoted hot haa 

been dlscueeed in several previous opinions of this Department 

in oonneotion width Saot eituatlona similar to the one presented 

In your, letter. 

In prevlouti Opinion No. 0-7260, we held that suoh abovequoted provision was oonstitutional. In pretioua Opinion No. 

o-7017, addrrseed to the PIrat Akslatant State SuptkrintsnrhHt 

of Publfo Inatruotlon, we held that school dicstrlote whioh had 

reduood their tax rata du$?lng the aahool year, 19434.4, were 
Hon. Alwln 3. Pape, Page 3 

not sligibls to reaelvs aid under the said provision, even 

though such school dietriots had no way of knowing that an 

action whioh thslr boards took nearly two years ago would 

affeot them adversely in scouring aid udder the current 

Equalization Act. Vie quote from suah opinion as Sollowa: 

*The Sorsgolrg rovlsfons of de,. 2 (underscored 

portion quoted above lp are plain and unambiguous. They 

must be aomplled with in order for any sohool dietriot 

to be eligible for any typo of aid . . , . 

Whether suoh provision is wise or unwise, Is not 

for this Department to detrrmins. The Legislature is the 

publlo polioy forming bod of thls state. Its Acts, when 

not in aoniliot wtth our .!i tatr Conatitutlon, or our 

Bederal Conetltution and the laws of Congress passed 

thereunder, are not for us to qua&ion, but must be upheld and enforoad. *When bho Intent Is plainly expressed 

in tha language of a statute, it mat be &van effect 

without attempt1 

7 

to oonrtrur or lntrrgrst the law. * 

39 Tax. Jur. p. 1 8.” (Parsnthstloal insertion added). 

Our pre~loua Opinion, MO. O-6768, held to the same 

sSSm* aa thr above quotrd opfnion, with the added holdlag 

that the above undersoond portion of SIo. 2 of the Act would 

ap ly to pmvsnt a reduction in the tax rats of a distrlot 

w hp oh has oontractsd to send all of its aoholastios to another 

dietriot. 

Subssqusnt to the above altrd opinions, this Department ruled in two reoent Opinions, No. O-7217 and o-7403, as 

Sollowa : 

(a) That where, for administrative reasons, a 

sohool district reduoad its valuations and, at the same 

time, lnoreased its over-all tax rahi, tharsby retaining the same net total tax revenue as b~fors, or slightly 

incrsasing the ssme, its ellgibllitg for squali%etiOn aid 

was hot assectsa, slnoe the valuations were held not to 

have been rsduoed in order to show budgetary need. 

(b) That where a sohool district rsduoed its maintenance tax rate Srom $1.00 to 50$, and then levied a SO# 

bona tax, the district did not disqualiiy itsslf for 6:ld 

because n&her the over-all tax rate nor the tdUath¶s 

had been reduced, and thersfore, ths statutory prohibltlon was not applicable, It will be obsarvud that suoh 
Hon. Alwin E. Pape, Page 4 

prohibitory portion contained In the second paragraph 

of Sao. 2 of the Aot relates to the over-all tax rata 

and is not confined to the maintenance tax, ~8 is the 

wording in the first ¶graph of such saotlon. 

We attaoh oopies of all the above oitad previous oplnions of this Department for your oonvenienoe. 

Turning now to the questions you have propounded, we 

answer your first auestion to the effect that the seoond paragraph of Sec. 2 of the ourrent Equalization Aid Aot (oltad 

supra) does deny to a school district the right to increase 

its tax rate for one year and then to decrease its tax rate 

so aa to return to the original tax rata, and stS.ll(yaliSy 

for State ald, if suoh deoraase osmrrad within the two year 

period Ismedlataly praoedfug the, year for whioh aid Is appllad 

for under the currant +ot, 

Your saoond Question 1s answered to thr aama effaot, 

u. ) a sohool distriot may not , under the terms of tha OUCwnt Aat, Sluatuata Its tax rata S?om year to yesar to aaat 

changing expense raquirements without jeopardizing Its quallfiaatlon for State aid, i~f by suoh Sluotuatlons ite ovar-all tax 

rate is thereby decreased to any extant within the abova-aantlouad two year period, evan though suoh decrease does not 

lower the tax rate whloh was being assessared at the beginning 

of such two year parlod. 

In our answer to your quastlons it Is to be noted that wa 

refer to decreasea in the over-all tax rata as heretofore stated, 

either the tualntahance or the bond tax rate may be changed without jeopardy provided the over-all tax rata is not thereby decreased, and provided, further, thst the maintenanoa tax is not 

deoreasad below 5Oa. 

We bsve careSully ooosldered your ar,guments against 

the rolihg of the State Department of Xducation relative to the 

raatrl#A.ona of the current Equalixatlon Aot and our previous 

opiniona, attached harato, disousa In some detail the pointa 

ralsed In your brief. We repeat, therefore, that whether the 

provisions of the currant Equalization Aot are wise, or unwise,it 

Is not for this department to jud$a. The provision In question 

is plain and unambiguous and must b+ complied with in order for 
Hon. Alwin E, Papa, Page 5 

any sahool aiatrict to be ali(;ibls r0r any type 03 aid under 

such Act. 

Trustiq that ws have rully an8vm-d your questions, 

wa ramin, 

Yory truly yourr 

ATTORNEY Gi%XWIAL CF TKXAS 

_ --r /g?i+- d& 

.S W. N. Blanton, Jr 

Amistant. 

wNB/JMo