Honorable Eugene Brady

CountyAttorney Hunt County Greenville,Texas
Dear Sir: OpinionNo. O-4991 Re: Can the county treasurer collect for the officers SalaryFund stated commissions for receiving and disbursingmoney coming into his hands by virtue of sale of bonds voted at Special Bond Election?

Your letter of November 23, 1942, requesting the opinion of this department on the above statedquestion reads as follows:

"Iwill appreciate an opinion from you on the following subject:
"!Can the County Treasurer collect for the Officers Salary Fund stated commissions for receiving and disbursing money coming intohis hand by virtue of sale of bonds voted at Special Bond Elections.'
"The facts are as follows: In 1941 the residents of PrecinctFour of this County voted to issueBonds for Road improvementsunder the provisions of Article 752 a et, seq. These bonds were promptly sold, themoney depositedwith the County Treasurer and some of themoney has been paid out onwarrants properly drawn on such fund.
"In 1942 the residents of this countyvoted bonds for the acquisitionand improvementof land for an Air field. These bondswere promptly sold, the money depositedwith the County Treasurer and some of the money has been paid out onwarrants properly drawn on such fund.
"In 1935 and for each subsequentyear the salary of the CountyTreasurer has been set atHonorable Eugene Brady, page 2 O-4991

$600by proper order of the CommissionersCourt. Hunt County compensates all County Officers on a salarybasis.

'InArticle 3912e, Sec. 4, it isprovided for the establishmentof 'anofficers salary fund in such county, Section 5 provides 'Itshall be the duty of all officers to charge and collect in the manner authorizedby law all fees and commissionswhich are permittedby law to be assessed and collected for all official servicesperformed by them, As and when such'feesare collected they shallbe deposited in the Officers Salary Fund'. “Article 3941 is as follows: 'Thecounty treasurer shallreceive commissions on the moneys received and paid out by him, said commissions to be fixed by order of the commissioners court as follows: FOP receiving all moneys, other than school funds, for the county, not exceeding two and one-halfper cent and not exceeding two and one-halfper cent for paying out the same--' "Article 3943 limits the amount of commissions allowed to the Treasurer in any one year. In this county such limitwould be $2020,00per annum. "'Thedetermination of the right of the county treasurer to fees upon a bond issuedepends upon whether the county has received or is entitled to receive cash from the sale of itsbonds'. 11 Tex. Jur, pg. 595.
"'If commissions (tobe collectedby the County Treasurer)have not been fixed by order of the Commissioners'court the County Treasurer is entitled to receive the maximum fees of the statute', 11 Tex, Jur. pg. 598. "Whileunder the order of the Commissioners Cour’t and the above quoted provisions the County Treasurerwould be entitled to receive only $600 as his compensation it seems that itwould be his duty to collect and pay to the OfficersSalary Fund the full statutory commissions of 24 per cent for receiving and 2aper cent for paying out the money realized from the sale of such bonds.Honorable Eugene Brady, page 3 O-4991

Hunt County has a population of approximately 48,717 inhabitantsaccording to the 1940Federal Census and the County officials of said County are compensated on an annual salary basis by virtue of the Salary Law of this State.

Under Section 1 ofArticle 3912e,Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, neither the State of Texas nor any county shallbe chargedwith or pay to any of the officers so compensated on a salarybasis, any fee or commission for the performance of any or all of the duties of their offices, save only the tax assessor and collectorwho shall continue to collectand retain for the benefitof the Officers Salary Fund or Funds provided for in the Act, all fees and commissions which he is authorized under the law to collect. The only fees, commissionsand costswhich the officers of the county, save only the tax assessor and collector,are authorizedby law to collect, are those fees, commissionsand costs that private parties are required to pay under the law, and costs in civil cases by the State. Accordingly, the commissionswhich the county treasurer would be authorized, otherwise, to receive moneys of the county received and disbursed by him, under Articles 3941-3943, inclusive,Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, may no longerbe collected from the county. To allow such collectionswould do violence to Section 1 ofArticle 3912e, supra, in that the countywould thereby be chargedwith and pay such commissions for the performanceby the county treasurer of his official duties,

With reference to the bonds issuedby Precinct 4 of Hunt County, if the road district funds are county funds, the county treasurer is clearly not entitled to any commission for handling them under the express provisions of Article 3912e,

If they are not county funds and there is no statute tUhT;)iawe

have been able to find allowing the treasurer commission for handling them, then the treasurer can not collect a commission, for none has been fixed and it has been made his duty to receive and disburse said funds by Article 752e,Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes.

The county treasurerwould not be entitled to receive any commissions for handling funds acquired by the sale of bonds issuedand soldby the county for the acquisition and improvementsof land for an air field under the expressprovisions of Article 3912e, supra. Therefore,we respectfully answer the above statedquestion in the negative.

Trusting that the foregoing fully answers your inquiry, we areHonorable Eugene Brady, page 4 

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Yours very truly
ATTORNEYGENERAL OF TEXAS By s/ArdellWilliams ArdellWilliams Assistant
AW:mp:wc Encl.
APPROVE0DEC 

### 3, 1942 s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/BWB Chairman