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Hon. Iz. L. ‘Shelton County Auditor Johnson County Cleburne, Texas Dear Sir; opinion No. 

### O-5053 Be: Should the county auditor approve the salary warrants of county officials under the facts stated?

Your letter of January 12, 

### 1943,requesting the opinion of this department on the question stated therein reads in part as follows:

“Whenthe County budget was prepared and ap f:roved on October 10, 1942 covering the year 

### 193certain officials salaries were set in the budget at certain amounts. Whenthe day of setting salaries for officers as provided by the Officers’ Salary Bill, on the,first regular meeting day in January 

### 1943someof these salaries were set in excess of the approved budgat.‘~ Is this permissible andmust the County Auditor approve the salaries set in January at the amounts in excess of the approved budget? ,t

. . . .II Your letter of January 15, 

### 1943,supplementing your letter of January 12, 

### 1943,is in part as followsr

“I wish to thank you very muchfor your prompt reply to myletter of 12th inst ., enclosing copies of Opinions Eos. O-07 and O-327 but I donot think that these opinions cover the particular case under considerat ion. Probably 1~should have been more explicit.

“To give you abetter understaqding of the situation; on August 28, 1942 the Commissioners’ Court had a hearing and adopted the budget for the

‘year 

### 1943. The court that adopted this budget is the samenewcourt With the exception of one commissioner, andthey ara aware of the prevailing condltions. They set the budget for three of the elected officials then as follows: one for $3,000.00, one- -. _

Hon. E. L. Shelton, page 2 

### (o-5053)

for $3,230.00 andone for $1,800.00. Whenthey met onJanuary 11th this year, without anynotice whatever they raised these three salaries, two to the maximum for Johnson County and one an additional $200.00.

“In your opinions you quote the law as to grave emergencies the budget can be amended. You can readily see that this does not apply to the salary of anydeputy andbesides it occurs to us that there is no grave emergency, this could have all be ascertained at the time of adopting the budget andhad it been done then wewould not have raised the question.

“In addition to the emergency clause, there are not sufficient funds to meet the payments of increase. Just this last year the fund carried a deficit of &,384.33 and in no prior year has the fund been less than $5,000.00 in the red at the end of the year which has been supplemented each year by transfer from the General Fundof the county.

“The offices under consideration, two, the County Judge and the County Clerk. Not until last year have these two offices ever paid their way but owing to the excessive demandfor delayed birth certificates each office received approxi.mately $2,000.00 additional fees this past year but this has about reached the saturation point andwhenit does this addition& fees will cease.

“If this information is not sufficient we shall be glad to furnish morebut webelieve this will enable you to better understand the situation and our position.

‘1.

. . .

“P.S.

“1 understand the Court is meeting today to amendthe budget to take care of this previous action.”Johnson County has a population of 30,361 inhabitants according to the l&O Federal Census, therefore, the county officials of said county mustbe compensated on an annual salary basis as required by Section 13 of Article 3912e Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes.. --

Hon. E* L. Shelton, page 3 

### (0-5053)

Section 

### 13of Article 3912e, supra, fixed the salary of each county official namedtherein in the class of counties in which Johnson County falls, at not less than the total sum earned by him in his official capacity for the fiscal year 

### 1935andnot more than the maximumamountallowed such officer under laws existing on August 

### 24 1935. (See the cases of Nacogdoches County v. Winder 146 S.W. (2) 9’72andNacogdoches county V. Jinkins, 140 S.W. t2) 901).

It is the duty of the commissioners’ court, under the salary law, to fix the annual salaries of the county officials in their respective counties, within the statutory limits, at their first regular meeting in January. The county budget is prepared prior to the time whenthe salaries of the county officials are fixed. Thebudget law (Article 689a-11, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes) requires the county judge after the adoption of the county budget andprior to October 15th of each year, to file with the State Comptroller at Austin, Texas a true and correct summarized statement of the adopted budgei showing the total amount adopted for each of the several divisions of the county’s activities and outstanding obligations and other things as mentioned in said statute. However, this statute (Article 689a-11, supra) does not authorize the commissioners1 court to fix the salaries of the county officials. County officials whoare compensated on an annual salary basis under the salary law are paid out of the Officers’ Salary Fund. Paragraph (b), Section 6, Article 3912e, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, authorizes the commissioners’ court to transfer from the general fund of the county to the Officers’ Salary Fundor Funds of such county, such funds as may be necessary to pay the salaries and other claims chargeable against the samewhen the moneys deposited therein are insufficient to meet the claims payable therefrom.

It is our opinion that in preparing the county budget the commissioners’ court should anticipate, if possible, the amount that the Officers’ Salary Fundwould have to be supplemented from the General Fund, if any, andmakeprovisions therefor in the budget. However, the moneys deposited in the Officers’ Salary Fundas required by the salary law maybe sufficient to pay or meet all claims payable therefrom. If this be true, then it would be unnecessary to supplement the Officers’ Salary Fundfrom the General’Fund. As it is the duty of the commissioners1 court, as above stated, to fix the salaries of the county officials at its first meeting in January, if at this time, the annual salaries of the county officials are fixed within the statutory limits, you should approve the salary warrant despite the budget provisions fixed by the court.Hon. E. L. Shelton, page 4 

### (O-5053)

Weenclose herewith the copy of the minutes of the commissioners' court enclosed with your inquiry. Yours very truly ATTORNEY

GENERAL

OFTEXAS By/s/ &dell Williams Ardell Williams, Assistant APPROVED

FEB2, 

### 1943 /s/ Grover Sellers FIRSTASSISTANT

ATTORNEY

GENUAL APPROVED:

OPINIONCOMMITl'K3 BY: BWB,Chairman AW:mp:wb Encl.