Court Opinion

ID: 9772549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:21:48.041516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:45.556575
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
In our original opinion we stated that Section 15(d), Article 1269Z-3, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Stats., empowered the Agency to issue bonds after a prior election. Actually, the Act authorizes the Agency to “issue bonds from time to time in its discretion to finance the undertaking of any urban renewal project * * The bonds “shall not be subj ect to the provisions of any other law relating to the authorization, issuance or sale of bonds.” They “shall be authorized by resolution or ordinance of the governing body of the urban renewal agency * * The Act itself, therefore, does not require an election prior to the Agency’s issuance of revenue bonds.
City of Dayton v. Allred, 123 Tex. 60, 68 S.W.2d 172, 177, held that Article 1112, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Stats., did not require an election prior to the issuance of revenue bonds for the purchase money of a utility system, but when that same City undertook to encumber the income from another City utility system, the statute was not applicable and an election was necessary. When no constitutional provision is violated, a statute may excuse an election. Brazos River Conservation and Reclamation Dist. v. McCraw, 126 Tex. 506, 91 S.W.2d 665; Lower Colorado River Authority v. McCraw, 125 Tex. 268, 83 S.W.2d 629; City of Houston v. Allred, 123 Tex. 334, 71 S.W.2d 251; City of Dayton v. Allred, 123 Tex. 60, 68 S.W.2d 172; McCann v. Akard, Tex.Com.App., 68 S.W.2d 1033.
City of Richmond v. Allred, 123 Tex. 365, 71 S.W.2d 233, concerned the issuance of bonds to purchase an existing water plant, but, as in City of Dayton v¡ Allred, supra, the bonds were to be secured by a lien and pledge of revenues from the city’s entire water system, and Article 1112 was not applicable to excuse an election. The case, however, goes further and holds that the issuance of such bonds is for the determination of the expenditure of money within the meaning of Sections 3 and 3a, Article 6 of the Constitution, which required an election by the qualified voters owning taxable property, who had rendered the property for taxation.
The reason, however, that City of Richmond v. Allred does not control this case is stated by the Supreme Court in Taxpayers’ Ass’n of Harris County v. City of Houston, 129 Tex. 627, 105 S.W .2d 655, 659: “We think that the holding in the City of Richmond Case, supra, cannot be said to support the contentions of the association et al. here. In other words, we think there is a vast difference between voting on revenue bonds to raise funds, the proceeds of which are to be expended to purchase a municipal water plant, and the mere voting of an ordinance for fixing minimum wages for city officers and employees. The first-mentioned enterprise involved directly the expenditure of money. The second involved principally a matter of public policy.” The direct question put to the voters in the Laredo election was whether they favored or were against the adoption of the resolution stated in the footnote. It did not concern a direct expenditure of money.
It'should be further observed that this action is an election contest which we conclude should have been upheld. We express no opinion with respect to the effect of an urban renewal election which is not contested.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.