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, in part, as follows: 

* 

. . . it has become necessary to request the 

opinion of your 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 of those 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 in part 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 in House 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 and Special Schools for the purpose 

of architectural and engineering plans, constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in 

the opinion of the Board are necessary to the proper 

care of those 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 of construction of said 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 of the Board of Control. The 

Board may contract for, and pay for plans and specifications for any contemplated construction, even 

though the contract for such plans and specifications 

may be made in one (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’ and provides that: 

” ‘The Legislative Budget Board shall require 

quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or 

expenditure of any of the funds appropriated to the 

Board institutions and the Central Office in this Article. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended 

until such budget approval shall have been secured.’ 

[Emphasis added.] 

“It is the opinion of this Board that the provisions 

of Section 26 of this Article are in no way affected by 

the budgetary requirements set forth in Section 14 of 

the Article in that Section 14 relates to ordinary operating expenditures of the 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 of the State Hospitals and Special 

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 of Article II.” 

Section 1, Article II of House Bill No. 426 contains 

specific appropriations for the support and maintenance of each 

hospital and special school named therein and the Central Office 

of the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools for 

each fiscal year of the biennium beginning September 1, 1951. 

No part of any of these appropriations is payable out of the appropriations to the Board contained in Section 26 of Article II. 

Section 14 of Article II reads as follows: 

“The Legislative Budget Board shall require 

quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or 

expenditure of any of the funds appropriated to the 

Board institutions and the Central Office in this Article. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended 

until such budget approval shall have been secured.” 

Section 26 of Article II contains an appropriation to the 

Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools of $S.OOO,- 

000 out of the 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 of the biennium beginning 

September 1, 1951 “for the purpose of architectural and engineering plans, constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in the opinion of the 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 of Article II reads 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) of Section 10 of Article II provides: 

“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 of Section 26 (c) of this Article. Salaries 

for such employees shall not exceed the prevailing 

wage scale in the locality where the work is done.” 

We have found no other provisions in Article 11 which 

pertain to your question. It is from this Article, the above 

mentioned provisions thereof, and the Act creating the Building 

Fund that we must determine whether the Legislature intended 

for the provisions of Section 14 to apply to the appropriations 

to the Board contained in Section 26. 

The Legislative Budget Board was created in 1949. 

Acts Slst Leg., R.S., ch. 487, p. 908. The act creating the State 

Hospitals and Special 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 of the net revenue derived from each of the two 

classes of cigarettes defined therein shall be credited to the 

Building Fund. It also provided that an amount not to exceed 

$S,OOO,OOO shall be credited to such fund for the biennium ending August 31, 1951, and an amount not to exceed $S,OOO,OOg 

shall be deposited to the 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 to the Board for Texas State 

Hospitals and Special Schools for the purpose of 

constructing, repairing and equipping such buildings 

as in the opinion of the Board are necessary to the 

proper care of those 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 supervisions of said buildings 

and all 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 of the Board of Control.” 

The Act did not further restrict or restrain the Board 
. . 

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

in the expenditure of the, appropriations for constructing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in its opinion are necessary for the proper care of inmates. It contains no reference 

whatever to the Legislative Budget Board, which had been previously created. 

There is no material difference in the language found 

in that appropriation and the language used by the Legislature 

in Section 26 of Article II to make the appropriations contained 

therein to the -Board. 

The only appropriations contained in Section 1 of Article II are “to the Board institutions and the Central 0ffice”of 

the Board. The requirement of quarterly budget approval prior 

to the obligation or expenditures of any of the funds appropriated 

to such institutions or Central Office by the Legislative Budget 

Board as provided in the 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, it necessarily follows that such appropriations 

do not come within the purview of Section 14, unless the concluding sentence in that 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. In other words, all the provisions 

of Section 14 must 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 in Section 1 of Article II “to the Board institutions and Central Office” specifically mentioned in the first sentence of Section 14. 

Consequently, you are advised that we concur in the 

opinion of your Board that the provisions of Section 14, Article 

II of House Bill No. 426, Acts 52nd Leg., 1951. do not apply to 

the appropriations to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and 

Special Schools contained in Section 26 of Article II. In answering this question we have not passed upon or considered the 
Hon. Larry 0. Cox. Page 6 (V-1240) 

constitutionality of Section 14, Article 

supra. 

SUMMARY 

The provisions of Section 14, Article II of House 

II of House 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 in Section 26 

of Article II of House 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