Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1939 )

THE AYITOBNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS June 12, 1939 Honorable E. H.. Thronton, Jr. Charimsn Appropriations Committee House of Representatives Austin, Texas Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-941 Re: Authority of Legislature to m*e appropriation to rdbuild a school buid- ing destroyed by a storm. We are in receipt of your letter of June.7, 1939, wherein you advise ,that the school building belonging to the Clyde Independent School District was destroyed Fna~ storm which visited that cbs@unbt$p:;&mecmonth,g.ago.>'- You request our opinion as to whether or not the egislature has the authority to make an appropriation out of the general revenue fund of this State to erect a school building in lieu of the one thus destroyed, and to equip the sam&. Article 3, Section 56, of the State Constitution provides that "the Legislature shall not, except as other- wise provided in this Constitution, pass any local or special law, authorizing. . .the building or repairing of school houses, and the raising~of money for such pur- poses." Article 3, Section 51, Constitution of Texas pro- vides that "The Legislature shall have no power to make any grant or authorize the making of any grant of,public money to sng individual, association of individuals, munici- pal or other corporations whatsoever,, . .; provided that the hegislature may reduce the tax rate herein levied, and provided further that the provisions of this section shall not be construed so as to prevent the grant of aid in cases of public calamity." Honorable E. PI. Thornton, Jr., June 12, 1939 Page 2 o-941 For the purposes of this opinion it may be con- ceded that Section 56 of Article 3 of the Constitution would ordinarily prevent the Legislature from making sn appropriation for the purposeof building a school house. Said Section 56 expressly provides for exceptions other- wise provided in the Constitution and in our opinion a case of public calamity wit'nin the terms of Section 51 would constitute such sn exception. As construed by our courts Section 51 does not prevent the Legislature from making a grant of public money to a municipal corporation where the grant is for the purpose of discharging a state obligation. city of Arsnsas Pass v. Reeling, 247 9. W. 818; Bexar County v. Linden, 220 9. $'. 761; Road District No. 4 Shelby County v. Allred, 68 S W. (2) 164. That construction has not been made to depend upon the happening of a public calam- ity. If a public calamity should be of such proportions as to affect the State as a whole, the granting of relief from the same would be a State purpose and we would have no need to call upon the exception contained in said Sec. 51. To give meaning to such exception, therefore, we are ccnstrained to hold that a grant of public money may be made in a case of public calamity although such calamity may not be of such proportions as to have a direct effect upon the State as a whole. In our opinion, the Legislature has the author- ity to make the appropriation under consideration, if the storm was of such severity as to impair taxable values in the,cornmunity and the ability of the tax-payers to pay their taxes, and the %gislature finds that it constitutes a public calamity. Yours very truly ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS BY Glenn R. Lewis Assistant GRL-MR/pam APPROVED GERALD C. MANN ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS APPROVED OPINION COMMITTEE BY BWB, CHAIRMAN