EATTTOECNEY GENERAL 

~FTEXAS 

August 20. 1951 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert 

Comptroller of Public Accounts 

Austin, Texas Opinion No. V-1243 

Dear Sir: 

Re.: Legality of paying for classified advertising from any 

appropriation other than that 

specific appropriation to tht 

State Board of Control for 

“advertising State’s business.” 

Your request for an opinion reads as follows: 

“In the departmental appropriation bill under 

which we are now operating is found the foIlowing 

. . appropriation for mamtenance and miscellaneous 

operating expense for the State Board of Control: 

* ‘Bonds for employees. fuel, water, lights, 

furniture, fixtures, office equipment, photostat supplies, printing and binding, paper Andy office supplies, 

support and maintenance of public buildings and 

grounds, including extra help and supplies, testing 

of materials, duplicating machine clupplits, equipment, telephone, telegraph, postage, stationery, books, 

advertising State’s business, express and drayage, 

travel expenses, typewriter parts and supplies, automotive equipment, elevator maintenance, salaries, 

air conditioning maintenance, uniforms, photographic equipment, receptionist supplies and equipment, 

flags, contingencies, and maintenance of State Cemctery.’ 

“There have been presented to me accounts for 

advertising State’s business drawn against appropriations other than the one quoted iboue. For a specific 

example, see photostatic copy of the attached claim. 
f 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert, Page 2 (V-1243) 

The appropriations do not specifically provide for 

the advertising of State’s business. 

“Provisions for the Board of Control to do 

such advertising may be found in R,C.S., Articles 

610, 634, 643, 650, 666, and others as amended. 

“QUESTION: Would the passing of accounts 

incurred to comply with above quoted statutory 

provisions against appropriations which do not contain a specific appropriation for advertising State’s 

business be in violation of general rider 15-b of the 

departmental appropriation bill which provides in 

part as follows: 

” ‘The appropriations herein provided are to 

be construed as the maximum sums to be appropriated to and for the several purposes named herein, and the amounts are intended to cover, and shall 

cover the entire cost of the respective items and the 

same shall not be supplemented from any other 

sources.“- 

Article 666b, V.C.S., reads, in part, as follows: 

“Section 1, Hereafter all departments and agen-:, 

ties of the State Government, when ,rental space is 

needed for carr,ying on the essential functions of such 

agencies or departments of the State Government, shall 

submit to the State Board’of Control a request.therefor, giving the type> kind, and size of building needed, 

t,ogether with any other necessary description, and 

stating the purpose for which it will be used and the 

need therefor. 

“Sec. 2. The State Board of CQntrol, upon receipt of such request, and if the money has been made 

available to pay the rental thereon, and.if; in the discretion of the Board such space is needed, shall forth-, ‘, 

with advertise in a newspaper, which has been regularly published and circulated in the city, or town, 

where such rental space is sought, for bids on such 

rental space, for the uses indicated and for a period 

of not to exceed two years. After such bids have been 

‘I 

I 
Hon. Robert S. Calve& Page 3 (V-1243) 

received by the State Board of Control at its principal office in Austin, Texas, and publicly opened, 

the award for such rental contract will be made to 

the lowest and best bidder, and upon such other terms 

as may be agreed upon. The terms of the contract, 

together with the notice of the award of the State 

Board of Control will be submitted to the Attorney 

General of Texas, who will cause to be prepared 

and executed in accordance with the terms of the; 

agreement, such contract in quadruplicate; one cf 

which, will be kept by each party thereto, one by the 

State Board of Control, and one by the Attorney General of Texas. The parties to such contract will 

be the department or agency of the government 

using the space as lessee and the party renting 

the space as lessor.” 

The foregoing Article makes no provision for the payment of advertising for bids on rental space. It requires the 

agency desiring the rental space to submit to the State Board 

of Control a request to obtain such space for it. If the Board, 

in the exercise of its discretion, finds such space is needed by 

the agency, it then becomes its duty to advertise for bids in a 

newspaper which has been regularly published and circulated 

in the city or town where such rental space is sought, unless 

the request comes within one of the exceptions contained in 

Section 4 of Article 666b. 

The appropriations for the support and maintenance 

of the executive and administrative departments and agencies 

of the State for the current biennium are contained in the Departmental Appropriation Bill. (H.B. 322, Acts 51st Leg., R.S. 

1949, ch. 615, pp. 1208 et seq.) The appropriations to the State 

Board of Control are found at pages 1232 through 1236. Item 

78 of these appropriations, which has been quoted in your request, isfor printing, contingencies, “‘advertising State’s business,” and other purposes. 

The photostatic copy of the claim attached to your 

letter, as an example of such claims presented to you by other 

agencies having appropriations in House Bill 322, is for advertising in a newspaper for bids on rental space, under the provisions of Article 666b, for the Texas Liquor Control Board. 

The claim was approved by that Board for payment out of Item 
Hoii. Robert S. Calvert, Page 4 (V-1243) 

50 of its current appropriation for printing, contingent expenses, and other purposes. Neither ““advertising State’s 

business” nor cost of advertising for rental space is specifically mentioned in Item 50. 

We have also examined the appropriations made to 

each of the other departments, boards, commissions, and 

other State agencies named in House Bill 322, and in all other 

Departmental Appropriations Bills passed since 1941, which 

have had an appropriation for the payment of rental space and 

have not found in any of them either a specific appropriation 

for ‘“advertising State”s business” or for the payment of the 

cost of advertising.for bids on rental space. It appears that 

Item 78 of the Appropriations to the State Board of Control is 

the only existing specific appropriation for ‘“advertising State’s 

business.” 

Since ArtiCle 666b does not specifically provide for 

the payment of advertising for bids on rental space by the 

Board of Control or by the department or agency for which 

such space is sought, and no specific appropriation having been 

made to any such agency for the payment of such advertising, 

it becomes necessary for us to determine whether the Legislature intended for the cost of advertising for bids on rental 

space to be paid by the Board out of its appropriation for “advertising State’s business” contained in Item 78 of its current 

appropriations, 

We have examined the appropriations made to the 

State Board of Control in each of the respective departmental 

appropriations bills, including the one for the biennium ending 

August 31, 1921, which became available to the Board January 

1, 1920, and the appropriations for the biennium beginning 

September 1, 1951, and have found in each of them a specific 

appropriation for “advertising State’s business,‘” except in the 

appropriations for the biennium ending August 31, 1921. However, the Legislature included therein an appropriation of 

$30,000 for the period beginning January 1, 1920, and ending 

August 31, 1920, and a like amount for the fisc~al year ending 

August 31’,’ I921, to be expended by the Board for such pur:~ 

poses as it ““may find necessary to effectuate the purposes” : 

of the Act creating the Board. One of the undoubted purposes 

for which these appropriations were made was to pay the cost 

of advertising in newspapers for bids on contracts for supplies. 
_I - 

Hon. Robert S. Calvert, Page 5 (V-1243) 

Consequently, the State Board of Control has been 

from the time of~its creation, January 1, 1920, continuously 

charged with the duty of advertising for bids on contracts for 

such supplies as it was required to purchase for the use of 

the State, its departments and institutions, except such supplies as it was authorized to purchase without the necessity 

of first advertising for bids thereon, and has had at all times 

an appropriation for “advertising State’s business” which 

clearly includes the payment of advertising for bids on contracts for such supplies. 

Therefore, in view of the foregoing, we have concluded that it was the intent and purpose of the Legislature 

that the expenses incurred for advertising for bids on rental 

space sought by an agency of the State under the provisions 

of Article 666b. V.C.S., would be paid out of the appropriations to the State Board of Control for “advertising State’s 

business,” for such advertising undoubtedly comes within 

the meaning of that term as used in Item 78 of the Board’s 

. appropriattons for the current biennium. If such had not 

been the legislative intent of the Forty-eighth Legislature 

which passed the Act from which this Article was codified, 

and all other Legislatures, including the Fifty-second, which 

have kbnvened since 1943, they undoubtedly would have made 

other specific provision for the payment of such advertising. 

You are therefore advised that the only available 

appropriation for the payment of advertising in newspapers 

for bids on rental space required by Article 666b, V.C.S., 

is contained in Item 78 of the appropriations to the State 

Board of Control for the current biennium. The payment 

inquired about cannot be made from other funds. 

SUMMARY 

The appropriation for “advertising State’s 

business” contained in Item 78 of the appropriations to the State Board of Control for the current 
Han, Robert S. Calvert, Page 6 (V-1243) 

biennium is now the only available appropriation for the payment of advertising for bids on 

rental space required by Article 666b, V.C.S., 

H.B. 322, Acts 51st Leg., R.S. 1949, ch. 615, 

p: 1235. 

APPROVED: 

C. K. Richards 

Trial & Appellate Division 

Everett Hutchinson 

Executive Assistant 

Charles D. Mathews 

First Assistant 

Yours very truly, 

PRICE DANIEL 

Attorney General 

* s ;i 

.~.. ,.d 

BY 

Bruce W. Bryant 

Assistant 

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