Honorable D. C. Grew 

State Highway Engineer 

Texas Highway Department 

Austin, Texas 

Dear Mr. Greerr Opinion No. O-5329 

Res Deparhnental Appropriation Bill of 

1943. From what fund shall legislative appropriation for the Texas 

Defense Guard Workmen’s Compensation 

be paid? Appropriation for administration of Certificate of Title Act. 

Your letter of July 19, 1943, suhnite the following questions for the 

opinion of this departmentn 

1. Out of what fund is the appropriation for administering Workmen's Cornpensation Act for the Texas DeEense Guard to be paid, under the provisions 

of Senate Bill No. 332, Acts Regular Session, 48th Legislature? 

P 

2. How much money has been appropriated by such Bill for the administration~ of the Certificate of Title Division? 

First Questionr 

The rider involved reads as follows: 

"There is hereby appropriated for each year of the Biennium beginning 

September 1, 1943, and ending August 31, 1945, the sum of Fifty Thousand 

($50,000) Dollars for the uses and purposes of; and carrying cut the prc- 

-&sions of.Senata Bill Ms. 135, Acts of the Regular Session of the 48th 

Legislature no salaries shall be paid from this appropriation. This approoriation, however, is contingent upon such Bill becoming a. law, and 

should such Bill not Broome 61 law this appropriation shall be of no force 

or effect, and no part thereof shall be expended." 

Senate Bill No. 135 has already become a law. The difficulty in determining from what fund the moneys appropriated shall ccmewises from that 

part of the Highway appropriation section of the Departmental 14ppropriation 

bet which reads as follows: 

"All revenues, fees, and grants in aid received for credit to the State 

Highway Fund during the biennium beginning September 1, 1943, together 

with the balance of such funds on hand at the beginning of each year of 
Honorable D.C. Greer, page 2 (O-5329) 

the biennium, are hereby appropriated for the payment of the specific 

appropriation herein made for the &ate Highnay Department and the Depar-cment of Public Safety, and for the establishment of a eysGf State 

Highmays and the planning, construction, end ma~intenance thereof as oontemplated and set forth in Chapter 1, Title 116, and Chapter 186, General 

Lawa of the Regular Session of the Thirty-ninth Legislature, and amendments 

thereto." 

Wa believe that the appropriation for carrying out the provisions 

of Senate Rill No. 135 till come from the General Fund and not from the State 

Highway Fund for the following reasonsr 

The Aot does not say that all appropriations to the State Sighway 

Department shall come cut of the State Highway find. but thatsuch fund is appropriated "for the payment of specific appropriations heroin made." we - 

believe that the tear aspeoif'io appropriations" refers only to the 164 itemized appropriations for different-empioyees and for operating expenses set out 

in detail in the first part of the Highway Depar+zaent section of the Act. If 

it were applicable to all appropriations, including the riders, there would 

have been no ocoasion for the Legislature to have insertedthe word "specific." 

Such word would have been super'fluous. 

Tfe are stsengthened in this interpretation by the fact that there 

are appended to the 164 itemized expenditures six riders calling for appropriations for various purposes and every one of these exaept the rider in questicn 

specifies from d-mt fund the appropriation shall mme. Four of these set cut 

that the appropriations are from the State Righvspy Fond; the fifth specifies 

that it is from the General Revenue Fund. If it had been intended that all 

appropriations to the State Righwpy Departmentware to ccma cut of the Strte 

Highway Fund, the use of thesna "specific appropriations" and the specifioation in four separate riders that the appropriations were out of the State 

Eighway Fund would have been mere surplusage. Under the rule that a statute 

will be construed to give effeot to all of its parts, we do not feel justified 

in adopting such a construction. 

The purpose of Senate Bill 135, which is to provide workmen's ccmpensmtion for tho Defense Guard, is SC remote from any duty pertaining to highways 

that we do not feel justified in reading into the Appropriation Act an intention 

to put the ontire expense of administering this aid to the Defense Guard upon 

the State Rtghway Fund. J&though the Guard on oocaaion of violence from within 

or wJthout,the State would defend the State Highways, yet such defense would ba 

no different from what it would render to all pncperty within the State, public 

or private. 

Senate Bill 135, itself, carried an appropriation of $15,000 from 

the General Ravenue Fund to effectuate the Act until August 31, 1943. The fact 

that the Legislature in creating workmen's oonpenaation for the Defense ruard 

and in makin& t!,e initial appropriation did not provide that it should come 

from the Stats iiighxny Fund is evidence, in the absenoe of language tothe contrary, in the Departmental Appropriation Bill that the funds thee&n appropriated 

mere to come cut of the General Fund. 
Honorable D.C. Greer, Page 3 (O-5329) 

Section 1 of the Departmental Appropriation El1 in its opening 

sentence provides that appropriations therein made are to come out of the 

General Revenue Fund unless otherwise specified. Said sentence reads as 

follows: 

"Section 1. That the several sums of money herein specified or 80 much 

thereof as may be necessary, are hereby appropriated out of the moneys in' 

the State Treasury, not otherwise appropriated in the General Revenue Fund 

or Spatial Funds as may be shown, for the support and maintance of the 

several departments and agencies of the State Government, for the M-year 

period beginning September 1, 1943, and ending August 31, 1945." 

Second Question: 

The riders appended to the appropriation for the State Highway 

Department, made by Senate Bill No. 332, include the following: 

"All revenues, fees, and grants in aid received for credit tothe State Highsay Fund during the biennimn beginning September 1, 1943, together with the 

balance of such funds on hand at the beginning of each year of the biennium, 

are hereby appropriated for the payment of the specific appropriations herein made for the State Highway Department and the Department of Public Safety, 

and for the establislnnent ofa system of State highways end ths planning, 

construction, and maintenance thereof as oontemplated and set forth in Chapter 1, Title 116 and Chapter 166, General Laws of the R gular Session of the 

Thirty-ninth Legislature, and amendments theretoo Fro&dad, however, that 

an amount not to exceed One Hundred Seventy-five Thousand ($175,000.00) 

Dollars is hereby appropriated for the Certificate of Title Division. 

"There is hereby appropriated under end by virtue of House Bill No. 205, 

Acts of the Regular Session of the Forty-seventh Legislature, sufficient 

highway funds to carry out the terms and provisions of said Act, and the 

State Highway Department is hereby expressly authorized to employ a sufficient nlrmber of emplo~fies necessary to carry out the terms and provisions 

of said Act, but in no event shall salaries be paid in excess of the amount 

paid for the same or similar positions in any department of the State Government.e 

B the provisions of Section 57 of the Certificate of Title Act, 

twenty-ffve T 25$ 1 cents of each fifty (50$) cents collected from an applicant for a Certificateof Title, or re-issuance thereof, isto be foraarded to 

theHighway Ds$artment for deposit to the State Highway Fund, and from such 

fees. the Department, under the provisions of said Section, is entitled to 

use sufficient money to pay all expenses neoessary to efficiently administer 

and perform the duties required by the Certificate of Title Law. 

The effect of this Section is to require the establishment of a 

special account within the State Highway Fund. The fees provided are deposited to the credit of this speoial account within the Highway Fund, and are 

dedicated to the payment of the expenses necessary to efficiently administer 
Honorable D. C. Greer, Page 4 (O-5329) 

the Certifioats of Title Law. 

The State Highway find proper is a special fund within the State 

treasury which derives its revenues frommotor vehicle registration fees and 

gasoline taxes, and is by law set aside specifically for the oonstruoticn 

and maintenanoa of a system of Stats highways. Vernon's Revisad Civil Statutes, Article 6674, Article 6674q-5, Article 6694. The #l75,000.00 appropriation is phrased in terms of its proviso. A proviso is oonstived in oonnection with the section or alause with which it forms a part, Its office or 

fun6ticn is to limit or restrict the meaning of that which has gone before. 

It is to be given effect, if possibla, according to the clear meaning of the 

language used. Tidewater Oil Co. v0 Sean, (Civ, Apps.) 148 S.W. (2) 184. 

The section of the rider to which the $lT5,000~JC appropriation 

is appended appropriates all mvenues, fees and grants in aid received for 

credit to the State Highway Fund, together with the balance on hand in the 

fund, to purposes whioh do not inolude the expenditure of suoh moncym for 

the operation of the Certificate of Title Act. The lsnguage of the #175,000.00 

appropriation begins with the words "Provided, however, . . ." indioating 

clearly the legislative intent to impose a limitation or restriction upon that 

which it had dons in the sentence preceding. The proviso is tc be oonstrued 

as limiting the authority previously oonferred by the apFopriation of the 

whole Highway Pund, by providing that #175,000.00 of such fund should be devoted to purposes not included in the appropriation made by the first sentence, 

to-wit, to the administration of the Certifioate of Title Act* 

The first sentence of this paragraph of the rider can have the legal 

effect of appropriating only that part of the Highway Furd which is not dedicated by law to purposes other than the purposes for which the appropriation therein made, for the reason that the terms of existing law may not be changed by an 

appropriation bill. State V~ Steele, 57 Tex. 203; Linden v. Pinley, 92 Tax. 

454; Conley v. Daughters of the Republio, 151 S. Ir. 883; Opinions of the Attorney 

General, 1916-18, p. 119) 1928-30, p. 209, Letter Book 60, p0 24; 1934-46, p. 46; 

Opinion NO. O-2573. The appropriation in the first sentenae can not be made out 

of that part of the Highway Pund which is composed of fees deposited therein, 

under the terms of Section 67 of the Certificate of Title Act, for such fees ly 

such Section, though deposited in the Highway Fund, arc dedicated by that Section to the payment of expenses of administration of the Certificate of Title Act. 

Porthe same reason, though the Legislature by the proviso indicated 

clearly an intent to subject the entire Highway Fund to the payment of the 

#l76,000.00 appropriated to the Cerbifioateof Title Division, since that portion 

of~the fund not composed of fees colleoted under Section 57 of the Certificate of 

Title Act oan not by the appropriation bill bs devoted to the purpose of administering the Csrtifioate of Title law, the proviso is valid only to appropriate the 

#175,000.00 from that part of the Hi~hvay Fund composed of fees collected under 

Sectuon 57 of the Certificate of Title Act. 

The result is that we have two appropriations for the Certificate of 

Title Division PrQn Certificate of Title fees in the Highmay Funds 
Hon. D. C. Greer, Page 5 (O-532.9) 

1. The proviso limiting the appropriation to $175,000,00. 

2. The paragraph following the proviso, which authorizes expenditure of sufficient Certifioate of Title fees out of the Highway Fund to administer the 

Aot. 

Since there is a direot conflict between these two provisions, 

which can not be resolved by the applioation of any other rule of statutory 

construction, we must apply the rule that in case of conflict between provisions of the same enactment, the provision last in point of position in 

the Act controls, on the theory that it is the latest expression of the legislative will. Stevens v, State, 159 S.W. 505. ?Ws the proviso is superseded by the paragraph succeeding it. 

It has been suggested that the fonflict is to be resolved by regarding the,proviso as an appropriation from the General Fund. To this we 

can not agree. It is not the province of construction to vsry the meaning of 

unambiguous language in order to avoid conflict between portions of the law. 

This is legislation -- not interpretation. 

During the present fiscal biennium the Legislature has appropriated 

for the administration of the Certificate of Title law all fees collected and 

deposited under Section 57 thereof. During the fisoal year 1941-1942, such 

receipts amount to $342,181.75; the expenditures for the same period, $185,765.15, 

Down through July 1, 1943, the reaeipts for the fiscal year 1942-1943 were 

h53.617.75; the expenditures, #87,544.47. The balance currently on hand in the 

Certificate of Title fee account is approximately $270,000.00. It is a matter 

of common knowledge that the heaviest burden involved in the administration of 

the Certificate of Title law -- the original registration of titles on all nutomobiles in this State -- has bean practically discharged, andthat the wrk is now 

settling down to that involved in the routine transfer of titles, Since the 

burden of work in the administration of the Act will be much less than that 

involved in the first years following its enactment, it is unreasonable to impute to the Legislature an intent to appropriate $175,000e00 in addition to all 

fees collected and deposited under Section 57 of the Act. 

J"& ansmr your first question that the $50,000.00 appropriated for 

administering Senate Bill No* 135, Acts of the 48th Legislature, Regular Session, 

is an appropriation from the General Revenue Fund. 

We answer your second question that there is appropriated by Senate 

Bill 332, for the ensuing 'biennia, for the administration of the Certificate of 

Title Act all fees collected under Section 57 thesof, that this is the only appropriation made for the administration of the Certificate of Title Law. 

APPROVED AUG 5, 1943 

~~~~~Is~~~S 

4TTORNEY GENERAL 

RW-MR$egw 

Very truly yours 

ATTORNEY GENh'RAL OFTBy /s/ R.W. Fairchild 

R.W. Fairchild 

Assistant