Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1971 )

ram GENERAL
August 12, 1971
Hon. Bevington Reed Opinion No. M-927
Commissioner of Higher Education
Coordinating Board Re: Method of calculating the
Texas College and University amount of funds to be in-
System cluded in determining the
P. 0. BOX 12788 "net general revenue ap-
Capitol Station propriations to the estab-
Austin, Texas 78711 lished public medical
schools," pursuant to
Article 2919e-2.1(&)(f),
Dear Dr. Reed: Vernon's Civil Statutes.
Your recent letter requesting the opinion of this office
concerning the referenced matter states, in part, as follows:
"The Coordinating Board has under consideration
proposals to contract with Baylor College of Medicine
and Baylor College of Dentistry as provided in Article
2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, and in items
8 and 9 of the appropriations to the Coordinating
Board, Texas College and University System, for the
year ending August 31, 1972, as contained in Senate
Bill No. 11, 62nd Legislature, Regular Session, 1971.
The Coordinating Board respectfully requests your
opinion concerning the method of calculating the rates
of disbursement of these appropriations. Specifically,
what amounts of funds shall be included in determining
. . . the net general revenue appropriations to the
established public medical schools . . -.' as this
phrase is used in Section l(f) of Article 2919e-2.1,
V.T.C.S.?"
Apposite portions of Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Civil
Statutes, provide as follows:
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.
Hon. Bevington Reed, page 2 (M-927)
"Section 1. Wherever used in this Act, the
respective terms shall have the indicated meaning
unless context otherwise requires:
II . . .
“(f) 'average annual state tax support per
undergraduate medical student enrolled at the es-
tablished public medical schools'-- an amount cal-
culated by dividing the net qeneral revenue aporo-
priations to the established public medical schools
for the fiscal year next preceding the scholastic
year of disbursement by the total number of under-
graduate medical students enrolled in those schools
on October 15 of said fiscal year.
II . . .
"Sec. 3 .A. In the exercise of the rights,
powers, and authority described in Section 2 of
this Act, the Coordinating Board may disburse to
Baylor College of Medicine, during each scholastic
year of disbursement, an amount equal to the aver-
age annual state tax support per undergraduate med-
ical student at the established public medical
schools multiplied by the number of bona fide Texas
resident undergraduate medical students enrolled at
Baylor College of Medicine: provided, however, that
the Coordinating Board shall never disburse an
amount exceeding the amount appropriated by the
Legislature for this purpose.
"B. Subject to the limitations described in
Section 3A of this Act, the Coordinating Board is
hereby granted the right, power, and authority to
establish, by contract with Baylor College of
Medicine, the method by which the above-described
disbursement shall be accomplished, and may pre-
scribe such reasonable rules and regulations as
are necessary to ascertain the average annual
state support per undergraduate medical student
at the established public medical schools."
(Emphasis added.)
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Hon. Bevington Reed, page 3 (M-927)
Section 4 of the foregoing Article gives the Board a
similar power to contract with the Baylor University College of
Dentistry. The last sentence of that Section provides that:
"For the purposes of this section The University
of Texas Dental Branch at Houston shall be used to
calculate the average annual state tax support per
undergraduate dental student."
Article IV of Senate Bill 11, Acts of the 62nd Legis-
lature, R.S., 1971 (General Appropriations Act for the fiscal
year commencing September 1, 1971), in setting forth appropria-
tions for the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University
System, contains the following line item appropriations for the
next fiscal year:
“8. Funding for Baylor College of
Medicinei in accordance with
H.B. 586, Sixty-first Legis-
lature, Regular Session, 1969 2,500,OOO
“9. Funding for Baylor University
College of Dentistry in accord-
ance with H.B. 586, Sixty-
first Legislature, Regular
Session, 1969 1,700,000"
H.B. 586, referred to in the foregoing appropriations, is now
Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Civil Statutes, portions of which
have been set forth hereinabove.
The term "net general revenue appropriations", is a
term which appears in the Appropriations Bill for the appropria-
tions to each of the established public medical schools (the
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the South-
western Medical School at Dallas) defined by Section l(c) of
Article 2919e-2.1. This term has appeared in these appropria-
tions in all of the fiscal years relevant to the funding of the
enabling legislation under consideration. The amount represented
bv the "net ceneral revenue approrxiations” is determined by sub-
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Hon. Bevington Reed, page 4 (M-927)
tracting from the "grand total" of the educational' appropria-
tions to the respective medical schools such other income as
the schools are expected to realize. For example, line item
appropriations to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
School at Dallas for the fiscal year ending August 31. 1971,
aggregated a "Grand Total" of $7,906,406. The Appropriations
Bill for that year (House Bill 2, Second Called Session, 61st
Legislature, 1969, page IV-371 indicates that "estimated net
income" of $666,300 was subtracted from this grand total,
leaving a "net general revenue appropriation" of $7,240,106.
The term "net general revenue appropriation" reappeared in the
appropriations to these two institutions for the fiscal years
ending August 31, 1969 (House Bill 5, First Called Session,
60th Legislature, 1968, pages IV-31 and IV-33), 1970 (House
Bill 2, Second Called Session, 61st Legislature, 1969, pages
IV-35 and IV-37), 1972 and 1973 (Senate Bill 11, Regular Session,
62nd Legislature, Pages IV-30 and IV-33).
The Legislature has consistently used the term "net
general rev nue appropriation" to mean the grand total of the
educational 5 appropriations to the Dallas and Galveston medical
schools, less other educational income realized by those insti-
tutions. Thus, when the Legislature:utilized the phrase "net
general revenue appropriations to the established public medical
schools" in its definition of the statutory rate of disbursement
to Baylor Medical School, the inescapable conclusion is that the
1 All of the appropriations set forth in the current appro-
priations bill for the University of Texas Medical School
at Dallas are for educational purposes. The appropriations
set forth in the current bill for the University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston are divided into tv?o portions:
one for "educational units", the other for "hospital units."
It seems clear that the Legislature intended that only the
"educational unit" appropriations, and not "hospital unit"
appropriations, for the Medical Branch at Galveston should
be used in determining the "net general revenue appropria-
tions" for that Branch: see the computations set forth at
pages 6-7, infra.
2 See footnote 1, supra.
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Hon. Bevington Reed, page 5 (M-927)
Legislature intended to incorporate by reference the above-mentioned
sums appropriated to the two public medical schools. Even if a
narrower interpretation of the phrase were possible, the Lnaisla-
ture has declared, in Section 6 of Article 2919e-2.1, that "all
of the terms and provisions of this Act are to be liberally con-
strued to effectuate the purposes, powers, rights, functions and
authorities herein set forth." To afford this phrase a liberal
construction means to give it its "generally accepted meaning,
to the end that the most comprehensive application thereof may
be accorded, without doing violence to any of its terms." See,
for example, Maryland Casualtv Co. v. Smith, 40 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.
Civ.App. - Dallas, 1931, no writ).
The meaning affixed to the term, "net general revenue
appropriations" by the Coordinating Bohrd in its budget requests
of the 62nd Legislature, although not binding on the Attorney
General or the Courts, is entitled to great weight. Moorman v.
Terrell, 109 Tex. 173, 202 S.W. 727 (1918); Slocomb v. Cameron
I.S.D., 116 Tex. 288, 288 S.W. 1064 (1926): Neubert.v. Chicaqo
R.I. & G.R.Y. Co., 116 Tex. 644, 296 S.W. 1090 (1927); United
States v. T.I.M.E., Inc., 252 F.2d 178 (5th Cir., 1958), cert.
denied, 358 U.S. 810 (1958).
In its budget request for the fiscal years ending
August 31, 1972, and August 31, 1973, the Coordinating Board
quoted the statutory definition of average annual state tax
support for undergraduate medical students enrolled at the es-
tablished public medical schools, and ascertained this amount by
(1) totalling the net general revenue appropriations for educa-
tional purposes to the University of Texas Medical Branch at
Galveston ($7,417,020; this figure is derived by subtracting the
anticipated income from educational and general funds of $960,897
from the total of $8,377,917 appropriated for educational units,
which is the total of line items 1 through 9, found in House Bill
2, Second Called Session, 61st Legislature, page IV-35) and
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas
($7,240,106) for the year ending August 31, 1971, as set out in
that appropriations bill, and (2) dividing that sum ($14,657,126)
by the minimum number of undergraduate medical students require.3
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Hon. Bevington Reed, page 6
to be enrolled at the two schools (1,020) to arrive at an average
annual state tax support for undergraduate medical students of
$14,370. (3) It noted that 175 bona fide Texas residents were
expected to enroll at Baylor Medical School in each year of the
forthcoming biennium, then multiplied $14,370 by 175, and arrived
at a figure of approximately $2,500,000. The Coordinating Board
requested this amount for each year of the biennium, and the 62nd
Legislature provided full funding of this request.
The necessary conclusion is that the Legislature accep-
ted the Coordinating Board's interpretation of all of the elements
of the phrase "average annual state tax support per undergraduate
medical student enrolled at the established public medical schools",
including "net general revenue appropriations."
The rate of disbursement established by Article 2919e-
2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, is clear and unequivocal.
This general law utilizes the phrase "net general revenue appro-
priations" in its generally accepted meaning, as established by
the appropriations to the University of Texas Southwestern Medi-
cal School in Dallas and the University of Texas Medical Branch
in Galveston, as well as the executive interpretation of this
phrase utilized in the budget request of the Coordinating Board,
Texas College and University System. That the 62nd Legislature
accepted the interpretation ty the Coordinating Board, and fully
funded the Coordinating Board's request pursuant to this inter-
pretation, establishes beyond question the meaning which must be
attached to "average annual state tax support per undergraduate
medical student enrolled at the established public medical
schools" as set out in Section l(f), Article 2919e-2.1.
You are, therefore, advised that the term It . . . the
net general revenue appropriated to the established public medi-
cal schoo1.s . . .'Ias this phrase is used in Section l(f) of
Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, means the
"Grand Total" of appropriations to the University of Texas
Southwesteim Medical School at Dallas and the University of
Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, less such other income as
may be realized by these schools from educational sources.
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Hon. Bevington Reed, page 7 (M-927)
SUMMARY
The term W . . . the net general revenue appro-
priated to the established public medical schools
. . .W as this phrase is used in Section l(f) of
Article 2919e-2.1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes,
means the "Grand Total" of appropriations to the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at
Dallas and the University of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston, less such other income as may be
realized by these schools from educational sources.
Ver$Zuly yours,
Attor y General of Texas
Prepared by Austin C. Bray, Jr.
Assistant Attorney General
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
Kerns Taylor, Chairman
W. E. Allen, Co-Chairman
James McCoy
Scott Garrison
Fisher Tyler
James Quick
MEADE F. GRIFFIN
Staff Legal Assistant
ALFPED WALKER
Executive Assistant
NOLA WHITE
First Assistant
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