THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

Honorable Allen C.Wilson CountyAttorney Kendall County Boerne, Texas,
Dear Sir: OpinionNo. Q-585 Re: In cases where a schodldistrict employs the county tax assessor and collector to assess and collect its taxes, may the trustees of such distritit

Instrudt saia assessor-collector~t6 increase' the levy in atidbrdance with a vote of said indepelident school district or must the secretary of s&id board first notify the cotiltisioners' court as to such increaseand they in turn levy the iXx and notify the,tax assessor and collector of such levy. We.~atie

in rticelpt

of your Ietter of April 1, 1939, in which you ask whether it is necessary for the secretary of a scti601 board of-an Independentschooldistrict to notify the commistiloners'

court of an ~lncreasein tax levy voted by-'such alstrict and have said commissioners' court notify the tax assessor-collectorof the county,who also ~coll&ts and asses6s for saiddistrict, or whether or not said board of trustees may directly notify said collectorassessorof the Increase.

The answer to your question depends upon whether'the county commlssioner$'courtmust make the levy of the taxes on the property In said Independent schooldistrict or whether said district may make the levy itself. An examination of the pertinent statute Indicatesthat in the case of an Independent school district the board of trustees annually levies and causes to be assessed (Inacollected the school tax. Article 2790, Revised ClvLl Statutes of Texas, reads Fn part as follows:

"Ifan independentschooldistrict votes a maintenance tax, the board of trustees shall thereafter annually levy and cause to be assessed and collected upon the taxableproperty in the limits of the district for the maintenance of the publicHonorable Allen C. Wilson, page 2 0-585

free schools of the said district such ad valorem tax as the qualified voters of suchdistrict authorizy, at the election held for that purpose;

. . . . This statute may be contrasted to the statuterelating to the levy 6f common taxeswhich is Article 2795 of the Revised Civil Statutes. In the case of Common SchoolDistrlct the county commissloners'court itself levies the tax. Said Article reads, In part, as follows:

"TheCommissioners'Court, at the~time of .levylngtaxes for county purposes, shall also Ievy upon all taxableproperty wlthlfiany comtionschooldistrict the rate of tax so voted if a specificrate has been voted;

. . ." Under Article 273' of the Revised CFvil'Statutesan'- lndeije-ti6nt

$Chooldistrict may employ a district tax assesSOP anc"coll6ctor. -Alsounder Article 2792, Revised Clvll Statutes, a county assessormay be emijloyed for' an ihdependent'schooldistrict. Said Article reads, Fnpart, as follows: "Whena majority of the board of trustees of an independentdistrict prefer to have the taxes of their'distrLct~assessedand collected by the county dssessor and dollector, Or collected only by the cotity tax dolledor, same.shallbe assessed and collected by said county officers an&turned bver.to the'treasureti

of the independentschool district for which such taxes have been collected.

...." There is nothing In eitherArticle 2790 or Article 2792, which directs the secretary of the board of trustees to first notify the county commissioners' court of an increase In the amount of levy for school taxes which had beeti~voted by's district. As pointed out inArtlele 2790, the school district Itself through its trusteesmakes the tax levy, and ndt the county comnil.ssloners' court. We are unable to find any authority or any part of the school law which'would require the notification of~thecounty commissioners' court Inthis case before notification of the assessor-collector himself.

It is the opinion of this Department, therefore, that when the county tax assessor-collectorwho is also the assessor-collectorof anyindependent school a,istrictis notified bf an increase in the amount of levy voted by anindependent schooldlstrlct that he should include the increase on his taxHonorable Allen C. Wilson, page 3 o-585

roll and i.t

is not necessary for him to have been notif:ed of such lncrea.se

by the county commissioners' court.
Yours very truly
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

By s/BillyGoldberg Billy Goldberg Assistant
BG:LM:wc

APPROVED SEP 16. 1939 s/Gerald~C.Mani ATTORNE3GENERALOF TEXAS Approved bpinion CommitteeBy EWO Chairman