# The Attorney General ofTexas
July 5, 1982 MARK WHITE Attorney General

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An Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer Mr. EvansN. Wents ExecutiveDirector OpinionNo. ?w482 State Commissionfor the Blind P. 0. Box 12866 Austin, Texas 78711 DearMr. Wents: Re: Authority of Commission for the Blind to guarantee loan repayments

The Sixty-seventh Legislature enacted section 91.0301 of the Human ResourcesCode,which provides as follows:

(a) The [C]ommission [for the Blind] may establish a program to make loans to finance the purchase of technological aids for visually handicapped persons. Interest on the loans may not exceed 10percent a year. (b) The director may promulgate rules to administer the loan program. Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 126,at 317. You state as follows:

It has been suggested that the commission would be more prudent and achieve better results by arranging the specific loans through existing bank channels and acting as guarantor for the loans, it being understood that the exposure of the commission would be limited to the specific portion of its endowment funds restricted to such use. This suggestionhasmerit in that it does not involve the commission in the directmanagement of a loan fund, and itworks to establish the credit record or history of the borrowers in the commercialmarket.

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. Mr. EvansN. Wentz - Page 2 (kg+482)

You ask: Does the commissionneed specific legislative authority to enter into a program calling for it to guarantee loan repayments, using a portion of its endowmentsas collateral? Administrative agencies have only those powers expressly granted by statute or necessarily implied therein. Stauffer v. City of San Antonio, 344 S.W.2d 158 (Tex. 1961); Statev. Jackson, 376 S.W.2d 341 (Tex. 1964). If applicable statutes do not grant an agency the power to do a particular thing, then the agency has no such power. Nueces County Water Control and Improvement District No. 3 v. Texas Water Rights Commission, 481 S.W.2d 924 (Tex.Civ. App. - Austin 1972,writ ref'd n.r.e.);Martinez v. Texas EmploymentCommission, 570 S.W.Zd 28 (Tex.Civ.App. - Corpus Christ1 1978,no writ). Section 91.0301 clearly does not expressly authorize the loan program you describe. The remainingquestion is whether it impliedly authorizes such a program. We answer in the negative. In our opinion, the power to establish a loan program throughbank channels, with the cosuaissionacting as guarantor on the loans and using a portion of its endowments as collateral, simply cannot be said to be reasonably implied in a statutewhichmerely authorizes the commission to establish and operate a loanprogram itself. If nothing else, the fact that the loanprogramwould be administeredby banks, rather than by the commission, is, in our opinion, sufficient to enable us to conclude that the proposed program is too different from the program contemplatedby section 91.0301 tobe permissibleunder that section. The proposed loan programmay be one which the legislaturewould authorize if it considered the matter. We must take statutes as we find them.however. andwe cannot read into themmore than theirwords will clearly sanctionand fairly sustain. Texas Highway Commissionv. El Paso Buildingand ConstructionTrades Council, 234 S.W.2d 857 (Tex. 1950); Railroad Conrmissionof Texas v. Miller, 434 S.W.Zd 670 (Tex. 1968). We therefore conclude that express or implied authority for the loan program you describe is necessary (assuming,of course: that such authority is provided in accordancewith the requirementsof the Texas Constitution), and that section 91.0301 of the Human Resources Code does not furnish such authority. You do not ask and we do not address any question relating to the constitutionality of section 91.0301. SUMMARY

Section 91.0301 of the Human Resources Code does not authorize the Commissionfor the Blind to

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establish, through existing bank channels, a program to make loans to finance the purchase of technological aids to visually handicapped persons, with the commission acting as guarantor on the loansand using a portion of its endowments as collateral.

MARK WHITE Attorney General of Texas JOHNW. FAINTER,JR. FirstAssistantAttorneyGeneral RICHARD E. GRAY III ExecutiveAssistantAttorney General Preparedby Jon Bible AssistantAttorney General APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE SusanL. Garrison,Chairman Jon Bible PatriciaHinojosa Jim Moellinger BruceYoungblood

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