August 17, 1951

Hon. Larry 0. Cox Executive Director Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools Austin, Texas Opinion No. V-1240

Dear Sir: Re: Necessity for advance quarterly budget approval by the Legislative Budget Board prior to expenditures from the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund.

Your request for an opinion reads, inpart, as follows:
*

. . .it has become necessary to request the opinion ofyour Department as to whether or not this Board is required by law to obtain quarterly budget approval from the Legislative Budget Board prior to obligating or expending any ofthose funds credited to the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund and appropriated to this Board by the provisions of Section 26, Article II, House Bill No. 426, Regular Session, Fifty-second Legislature.
“These provisions read inpart as follows:

”‘Sec. 26. (a) There is hereby appropriated to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) for each fiscal year of the biennium ending August 31, 1953. Such funds are to be credited to the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund which is the same hospital building fund
as provided for inHouse Bill No. 2, First Called Session, Fifty-first Legislature.

“6

. . ..
Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 2 (V-1240)

*‘(b) All funds credited to the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund under this Article are hereby appropriated to the Board for Texas State Hospitals andSpecial Schools for the purpose of architectural and engineering plans, constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in the opinion ofthe Board are necessary to the proper care ofthose committed or to be committed to such hospitals and special schools according to law. Provided, however, the fees paid to an architect shall not exceed six per cent (6%) for the plans, specifications and.supervision ofconstruction ofsaid buildings and all construction contracts made for, and the final acceptance in connection with such construction, other than the plans and specifications, shall be subject to the review and approval ofthe Board of Control. The Board may contract for, andpay for plans and specifications for any contemplated construction, even though the contract for such plans and specifications may be made inone (1) year and the contract for construction is entered into the following year.’

“Section 14, Article II, House Bill No. 426, Regular Session, Fifty-second Legislature, is entitled

‘Quarterly Budgets’ andprovides that:

”‘The Legislative Budget Board shall require quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or expenditure ofany ofthe funds appropriated tothe Board institutions and the Central Office inthis Article. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended until such budget approval shall have been secured.’ [Emphasis added.]

“It is the opinion ofthis Board that the provisions **of** Section 26 ofthis Article are inno way affected by the budgetary requirements set forth inSection 14of the Article inthat Section 14 relates to ordinary operating expenditures ofthe central office and the several institutions under the Board’s control and management, and not to construction expenditures to be made by the Board itself out ofthe State Hospitals andSpecial Schools Building Fund. Restated, it is the Board’s. . Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 3 (V-1240)

opinion that these latter expenditures are to be governed solely by the provisions of Section 26 ofArticle II.”
Section 1,Article IIofHouse Bill No. 426 contains specific appropriations for the support and maintenance of each hospital and special school named therein and the Central Office ofthe Board for Texas State Hospitals andSpecial Schools for each fiscal year ofthe biennium beginning September 1, 1951. No part of any of these appropriations is payable out of the appropriations to the Board contained inSection 26 ofArticle II.

Section 14ofArticle IIreads as follows:
“The Legislative Budget Board shall require quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or expenditure of any ofthe funds appropriated to the Board institutions and the Central Office inthis Article. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended until such budget approval shall have been secured.”
Section 26 ofArticle IIcontains an appropriation to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools of $S.OOO,- 000 out ofthe State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund created by the Legislature in 1950 (H.B. 2, Acts Slst Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 1, p.1) for each fiscal year ofthe biennium beginning September 1, 1951 “for the purpose of architectural and engineering plans, constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as inthe opinion ofthe Board are necessary to the proper care of those committed or to be committed to such hospitals and special schools according to law.”

Subsection (c) of Section 26 ofArticle IIreads as follows :

“It is hereby declared the intent and policy of the Fifty-second Legislature that the Board shall use such moneys from the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund as may be required to repair and rehabilitate existing buildings and facilities. n
Subsection (f) ofSection 10of Article IIprovides: “The Board is authorized to employ such additional laborers, skilled laborers, and mechanics
as may be necessary to carry out such major repair and rehabilitation projects which may be financed from moneys of the State Hospitals and Spe-Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 4 (V-1240)

cial Schools Building Fund, in accordance with the provisions ofSection 26 (c) ofthis Article. Salaries for such employees shall not exceed the prevailing wage scale inthe locality where the work is done.”

We have found no other provisions in Article 11which pertain toyour question. Itis from this Article, the above mentioned provisions thereof, andthe Act creating the Building Fund that we must determine whether the Legislature intended for the provisions ofSection 14to apply to the appropriations to the Board contained inSection 26.

The Legislative Budget Board was created in 1949. Acts Slst Leg., R.S., ch. 487, p. 908. The act creating the State Hospitals andSpecial Schools Building Fund was passed in 1’950. Acts 51st Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 1, p. 1. This Act increased the taxes on cigarettes until August 31, 1957, and provided that a certain per cent ofthe net revenue derived from each ofthe two classes ofcigarettes defined therein shall be credited to the Building Fund. Italso provided that an amount not to exceed $S,OOO,OOOshall be credited to such fund for the biennium ending August 31, 1951, and anamount not to exceed $S,OOO,OOg shall be deposited tothe credit of such fund for each fiscal year thereafter.
The Act contained an appropriation to the Board which read as follows:

“All funds credited to the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund under this Act are hereby appropriated tothe Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools for the purpose of constructing, repairing and equipping such buildings
as inthe opinion ofthe Board are necessary to the proper care ofthose committed or to be committed to such hospitals andspecial schools according to law. Provided, however, the fees paid to an architect shall not exceed six per cent (6%) for theplans, specifications and supervisions of said buildings and all contracts made for andthe final acceptance in connection with such construction other than the plans and specifications, shall be subject to the review and approval ofthe Board of Control.”
The Act did not further restrict or restrain the Board. .

Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 5 (V-1240)

inthe expenditure ofthe,appropriations for constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in its opinion are necessary for the proper care of inmates. Itcontains no reference whatever to the Legislative Budget Board, which had been previously created.

There is nomaterial difference inthe language found inthat appropriation and the language used by the Legislature inSection 

### 26 ofArticle IIto make the appropriations contained therein to the-Board.

The only appropriations contained inSection 1ofArticle IIare “to the Board institutions and the Central 0ffice”of the Board. The requirement ofquarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or expenditures of any ofthe funds appropriated to such institutions or Central Office by the Legislative Budget Board as provided inthe first sentence of Section 14 is applicable only to such appropriations. Since the money appropriated in Section 

### 26 is to the Board and not to any particular institution or institutions, itnecessarily follows that such appropriations donot come within the purview of Section 14, unless the concluding sentence inthat Section is applicable to them. That sentence reads as follows:

‘No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended until such budget approval shall have been obtained.”
This sentence must be read and considered with the sentence which precedes it. Inother words, all the provisions ofSection 14must be read and considered together for the purpose of ascertaining the legislative intent. When so read and considered in connection with all other pertinent facts and circumstances heretofore noted, we have concluded that the Legislature intended for this sentence to apply only to the appropriations contained inSection 1ofArticle II “to the Board institutions and Central Office” specifically mentioned inthe first sentence ofSection 14.

Consequently, you are advised that we concur inthe opinion ofyour Board that the provisions ofSection 14, Article IIof House Bill No. 426, Acts 52nd Leg., 1951. do not apply to the appropriations tothe Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools contained inSection 

### 26 ofArticle II. In answering this question we have not passed upon or considered theHon. Larry 0. Cox. Page 6(V-1240)

constitutionality ofSection 14, Article supra.

SUMMARY

The provisions ofSection 14, Article IIof House IIofHouse Bill No. 426,

Bill No. 426, Acts 52nd Leg., R.S., 1951, do not apply to the app~ropriations to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools contained inSection 26 of Article IIofHouse Bill No. 426 for the purpose of constructing and repairing buildings.

APPROVED: Yours very, truly,

C. K. Richards PRICE DANIEL Trial &Appellate Division Attorney General

Everett Hutchinson Executive Assistant
Charles D. Mathews First Assistant
BWB:wb:mf Bruce W. Bryant Assistant