HonorableJesse James

State Treasurer Austin, Texas Opinion NO. c-388 Re: Whether the Treasury Departmentmay expend for salaries for personal services and other miscellaneousoperating expenses any of the funds received pursuant to the

zrovisions of Article .08, Texas InsuranceCode, and placed in the Special Trust Fund provided for Dear Mr. James: by Section 9 of said Article. You have requestedan opinion of this office involving the followingquestion:

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. . . whether this departmentmay expend for salaries for personal services and other miscellaneous operating expensesany of the funds received pursuant to the provision of Article 4.08, Texas Insurance Code, and placed in the Special Trust Fund provided for by Section 9, of said Article." Section 9 of Article 4.08 provides: "Upon receipt of any unclaimed funds from such life insurance companiesby the State Treasurer, he shall pay forthwith three-fourthsof the amount thereof into the general funds of the state for the use of the state. The remaining one-fourth shall be administeredby him as a special trust fund for the purposes of this Article,

. . *' (Emphasisadded.) In a previous opinion No. C-297 (1964), this office held that there was an appropriationof funds made by the Legislature in Section 9 of Article 4,08, Texas Insurance Code. The opinion stated:

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Hon. Jesse James, page 2 (c-388)

II Article 4.08 Section 9 designates onefourth'ofall the uncl:imed funds from life insurance companieswhich, as collected,are depositedwith the State Treasurer to the credit of a special trust fund to administerthe purposes of the Act. A valid appropriationof money within the meaning of ArticleVIII, Section 6 of the Constitutionof Texas was made by the Legislaturein Article 4.08, Section 9 for the purposes stated in the Act." In order to answer your question,we must determinewhether the exoendltureof funds for the indicatedpurposes comes within'the scope of the appropriation; i.e., "for the purposes of this Article". The State Treasurer is specificallyrequired to erform the followingduties under Section 12 of Article 4.06. "The State Treasurer shall keep in his office a public record of each payment of unclaimed funds receivedby him from any life insurance company. Except as to amounts reported in the aggregate such record shall show in alphabeticalorder the name and last known address of each insured or annuitant,and of each beneficiaryor other person who according to the company'sreports may have an interest in such unclaimed funds, an& with respect to each policy or contract, its number, the name of the company,and the amount due." Section 5 of Article 4.08 requires the State Treasurer to cause to be publisheda notice in a newspaper "publishedor having a general circulationin each county of this State in which is located the last known address of a person appearing to be entitled to such funds." Such notice is to contain an alphabeticallist of the names reportedby the life insurance companies to have a last known address within such county, togetherwith the amount due each person, the date it became payable, the last known address of the owner, the name and address of the reporting insurance company and a statement that all such funds which are not claimed by the following December 20th are to be placed in the custody of the State Treasurer. In our opinion, the duties imposedupon the State Treasurer by,Article4.08 are of such a nature as to necessarilyrequire in the performancethereof the employmentof personnel,. _

Hon. Jesse James, page 3 (C-388)

purchase of needed supplies,and the expenditureof funds for miscellaneousoperatingexpenses In connectiontherewith. The performanceof such duties being one of the purposes of the Article, it necessarilyfollows that the Legislatureintended that the funds appropriatedby Section $4 "for the purposes of this Article" be expended for salaries of necessary personnel and other expenses in conjunctionwith performanceof such duties. We are supported in this inter State, 132 Tex. 575, 126 S.W.2d 4 (1939 B retationby Wood v.

, page 7: "It is the settled law that statutes should be construed so as to carry out the legislativeintent, and when such intent is once ascertained,it should be given effect, even though the literalmeaning of the words used therein is not followed. Also, statutes should never be given a constructionthat leads to uncertainty,injustice, or confusion,if it is possible to construe them otherwise.

. . .'I In a previous opinion No. v-1288 (lqsl),a similar question arose over the authority of the Teacher RetirementSystem to pay the cost of actuarial services. (13), Article 2922-1, V.C.S., Under Section 6, Subsection the State Board was required to designatean actuary. No provisionwas expresslymade within the Subsectionfor compensationof this employee. The general appropriationto the agency did not specifically provide for the payment for the services of the actuary. The General Appropriation

did contain the followingprovision: "For the purposes of carrying out the provisions of the Act establishingthe Teacher Retirement System, there is hereby appropriatedto the Teachers RetirementSystem of Texas for each of the fiscal years ending August 31, 1952, and August 31, 1953, all moneys collectedand received by said System under the provisionsof Senate Bill No. 47,

. . .' (Emphasisadded.) Subsection7 of Section 8 of Article 2922-1, V.A.S. set up an expense fund and contained the following language:

"The Expense Fund shall be the fund from which the expenses of administration and maintenanceof the RetirementSystem shall be paid.

. . .'I In OpinionNo. v-1288 it was held that the appropriation 11

. . . for the purposes of carrying out the provisionsof the

-ia38-Ron. Jesse James, page 4 (c-388)

Act establishingthe Teacher RetirementSystem" was 'I.
. . clearly sufficientto authorize the Board of Trustees of the System to use the moneys thus appropriatedto pay for the services of the actuary requiredby Section 6, Subsection (13), Article 2922-1,V.C.S.
. . ." Therefore in our opinion the funds appropriatedfor the purposes of Article 4.08 may be expended for the salaries of employeesnecessary to carry out the duties imposedupon the State Treasurer'soffice by the provisionsof Article 4.08 and for other miscellaneousexpenses incident thereto. This appropriation

extends for a period of two years from the effectivedate of Article 4.08 on August 22, 1963.

SUMMARY Section 9 of Article 4.08 is a valid appropriation by the Legislature; and all expenses,both salaries for personal service and miscellaneousoperating expenses,are to be defrayed from the special trust fund; and the appropriation extends for a period of two years from the effectivedate of Article 4.08, August 22, 1963. Very truly yours, WAGGONER CARR Attorney General
2 L&-J"--- BY Wade Anderson Assistant WA:ml APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE W. V. Gep,pert,

Chairman Pat Bailey Linward Shivers Roy Johnson APPROVED FOR THE ATPORNEY GENERAL BY: Stanton Stone