Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1970 )

February 2, 1970 I-Ion, W. Ii.Eyssen, Jr. Opinion No, M- 569 County Attorney Howard County Re: Questions concernfng the Big Spring, Texas 79720 assumption of the assess- ment and collection of taxes on behalf of the City of Big Spring by the Tax Assessor-Collector Dear Mr. Eyasen: of Howard County. In your request for an opfnfon, you state the following: "It fs presently contemplated by the City Commlssfon of the Cfty of Big Spring, Howard. County> Texas, and by the County Commfssfoners of Howard County, Texas2 that it would be mutually advantageous to coinbfnethe assessment and collecp' tfon of taxes on behalf of said City of Big Spring Into the office of the County Tax Assessor-Collector and In connectfon with the proposed combination it would appear that the .followfngproblems are presented which requfre answer by your offfce, 'Before statfng the problems it would probably be well to outlfne the facts as they now exist, At the present tfme both the City and the State and County Assessors-Collectors are usfng identical 100s valuatfons on property located both fn the Cfty and the County for appraisal purposes, For taxfng purposes0 however9 the County is usfng 2% of such lOO$ valuation ffgures and the City fs using 60% of such IOO$ valuatfon, Each tax assessor-collector applies the 2O$ and/or 60% rate> as.the,,casema$be, tk arrive at the final valuation u~pon',w~Lch'~be:appYfcabPetax rate fs based and to arrive at the,amount of tax assessed and payable, -2718- Hon. W. H. Eyssen, Jr., page 2 (M-569) .,, “1 D The first question, therefore, 1.8,und&l( th;!provfsfons of Article 7359 VATS, fn the event the two taxing offices are combfned would ft be permfsEfble for the County Assessor-Collector to use9 fn makfng the tax aases~smenton property located wfthfn the corporate limits of the City, the 60s actorfng of the 100% valuation for the @sty ;::i tax and if contfnue to us,ethe 20% factoring of the 100% valuation fn connection with the assessment of the, county tax on identical property. "2. The City of Big Spring Is a home-rule city and various provisions of the charter are 'asfo$lowsa "Artfcle VI, Section 1, Until otherwise pro-~, vfded by the city commission, the appolntive offfcers of the city shall consfst of the city manager, tht?chief of police, city secretary and tax collector, city attorney, city ffre chief, city tax assessor,,and city treasurer, In the discretion of the city commission, and under the lfmftations imposed by law, two or more of the above offices may be con- solidated into one, '"ArticleIV, Section 12, The city commfssfc& shall create appofntfve offices when the same is deemed expedient and may divide the admfnfstratfon of the cfty"s affairs into such departments as they may deem advfsable, and may discontinue any such appofntfve offfce or department at thefr dfscretfon, except the office of city manager. "Article VI, Seetfon 6. Cfty Secretary D D D AS tax collector, he shall collect all taxes due to the city, and shall pay the same over at least weekly to the city treasurer. '"ArticleVI, Section 9. Tax Assessor. The : city t;axa~ssessorshall make up the assessment of property taxed by t.hecfty; and make duplicate rolls thereof, one of which when completed, shall be delivered to the city secretary, “Article VIP a The cfty shall have the poxer to annually levy and collect taxes on the assessed valuation of all real estates personal and mfxed -2719- Hon, We H. Eyssen, page 3 (M-569) property wfthfn the city limits, not exempt from taxation by the constitution and laws of the state, provided that the total levy for all pur- poses shall not exceed the statutory limitation, “Article VII, Section 8, The City commission shall at fts first meeting Pn June or as,soon there- after as practfcable levy the annual tax for such year, but specfal taxes or assessments may be levied, assessed and collected at such time as the commission may provide. 1000 %nder tiieabove articles, If the City is other- wise debirous of havfng-the County Tax Assessor- Collector handle the assessment and collectfon of the City taxes can this be accomplished without necessfty of charter amendment or would it be essentfal that the Cfty Charter be amended to abolfsh the offke of Tax Assessor-Collector and the tax assessfng and collecting functions stated therein. “3* If the City elects to take the actions outlined above with whom would it be appropriate for the Cfty to contract with regard to the services of the County Tax Assessor-Collector; furthermore, to whom should the 1% be pafd.by .the Cbty.. Further, could the Cfty provfde services and pay a portion of the costs of operatfng the combfned tax offfce proposed above in addition to the l$iO” Articles 1042b and 735g9 Vernon’s Cfvil StStUteS, ex- pressly authorize any incorporated cftyp by ordinance or by proper resolutfon, to enter fnto a contract authorizing the County Tax Assessor-Collector to act‘as Tax Assessor-Collector for such City, Each of these statutes~expressly provides that the property situated within the city shall be assessed at the same value as ft fs assessed for county and state purposes, Further, the charter of the City of Big Spring provides that the City commission may discontinue any appolntfve office, such as Tax Assessor-Collector, at their dfs- cretfon, Therefore9 ft would not appear to be necessary to amend the city charter since both the charter and the statutes,empower the city to enter into the contract authorfzfng the county official to act for and on behalf of the city, Said Article 1042b provfdes that for performing the re- qufred services the County Tax Assessor-Collector shall receive an -2720- Hon. W, H, Eyssen, page 4(M-569) amount to be agreed upon by the governfng body of the incop- porated city and the Commfssfoners Court of the county fn which such city fs sftuated, not to exceed l$ of the taxes so collected. The statutes provfde that such fee shall be paid to the County Tax~Assessor-Collector, SUMMARY Where a cfty and a county enter into a contract for the County Tax Assessor-Collector to act in such capacity for the city, the property situated within such city shall be assessed at the same value as It was assessed for county and state purposes, Articles 1042b and 7359, V,C,S, Under the provisions of said statutes and of the charter of the City of Big Sprfng, it does not appear necessary that the city charter be amended in order to enter into the proposed contract. The County Tax Assessor- Collector shall receive an amount to be agreed upon by the governing body of the city and the Commissioners Court of the county 'notto exceed l$ of the taxes collected. Attorney General Prepared by Jack Sparks Assistant Attorney General APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE Kerns Taylor, Chafrman Bill Allen Jerry Roberts Z. T, Fortescue Bill Craig MEADE F, GRIFFIN Staff Legal Assfstant NOLA WHITE First Assfstant -2721- ,,.~.. . .