Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1951 )

August 17, 1951
Hon. Larry 0. Cox
Executive Director
Board for Texas State Hospitals
and Special Schools
Austin, Texas Opinion No. V-1240
Re: Necessity for advance quar-
terly budget approval by the
Legislative Budget Board
prior to expenditures from
the State Hospitals and Special
Dear Sir: Schools Building Fund.
Your request for an opinion reads, in part, as follows:
* . . . it has become necessary to request the
opinion of your Department as to whether or not this
Board is required by law to obtain quarterly budget
approval from the Legislative Budget Board prior to
obligating or expending any of those funds credited
to the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building
Fund and appropriated to this Board by the provisions
of Section 26, Article II, House Bill No. 426, Regular
Session, Fifty-second Legislature.
“These provisions read in part as follows:
” ‘Sec. 26. (a) There is hereby appropriated to
the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools
Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) for each fiscal year
of the biennium ending August 31, 1953. Such funds are
to be credited to the State Hospitals and Special Schools
Building Fund which is the same hospital building fund
as provided for in House Bill No. 2, First Called Ses-
sion, Fifty-first Legislature.
“6 . . .
.
Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 2 (V-1240)
* ‘(b) All funds credited to the State Hospitals
and Special Schools Building Fund under this Arti-
cle are hereby appropriated to the Board for Texas
State Hospitals and Special Schools for the purpose
of architectural and engineering plans, construct-
ing, repairing, and equipping such buildings as in
the opinion of the Board are necessary to the proper
care of those committed or to be committed to such
hospitals and special schools according to law. Pro-
vided, however, the fees paid to an architect shall not
exceed six per cent (6%) for the plans, specifications
and. supervision of construction of said buildings and
all construction contracts made for, and the final ac-
ceptance in connection with such construction, other
than the plans and specifications, shall be subject to
the review and approval of the Board of Control. The
Board may contract for, and pay for plans and speci-
fications for any contemplated construction, even
though the contract for such plans and specifications
may be made in one (1) year and the contract for con-
struction is entered into the following year.’
“Section 14, Article II, House Bill No. 426, Regu-
lar Session, Fifty-second Legislature, is entitled
‘Quarterly Budgets’ and provides that:
” ‘The Legislative Budget Board shall require
quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or
expenditure of any of the funds appropriated to the
Board institutions and the Central Office in this Arti-
cle. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended
until such budget approval shall have been secured.’
[Emphasis added.]
“It is the opinion of this Board that the provisions
of Section 26 of this Article are in no way affected by
the budgetary requirements set forth in Section 14 of
the Article in that Section 14 relates to ordinary oper-
ating expenditures of the central office and the several
institutions under the Board’s control and management,
and not to construction expenditures to be made by the
Board itself out of the State Hospitals and Special
Schools Building Fund. Restated, it is the Board’s
. .
Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 3 (V-1240)
opinion that these latter expenditures are to be gov-
erned solely by the provisions of Section 26 of Arti-
cle II.”
Section 1, Article II of House Bill No. 426 contains
specific appropriations for the support and maintenance of each
hospital and special school named therein and the Central Office
of the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools for
each fiscal year of the biennium beginning September 1, 1951.
No part of any of these appropriations is payable out of the ap-
propriations to the Board contained in Section 26 of Article II.
Section 14 of Article II reads as follows:
“The Legislative Budget Board shall require
quarterly budget approval prior to the obligation or
expenditure of any of the funds appropriated to the
Board institutions and the Central Office in this Arti-
cle. No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended
until such budget approval shall have been secured.”
Section 26 of Article II contains an appropriation to the
Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools of $S.OOO,-
000 out of the State Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund
created by the Legislature in 1950 (H.B. 2, Acts Slst Leg., 1st
C.S., ch. 1, p.1) for each fiscal year of the biennium beginning
September 1, 1951 “for the purpose of architectural and engi-
neering plans, constructing, repairing, and equipping such build-
ings as in the opinion of the Board are necessary to the proper
care of those committed or to be committed to such hospitals
and special schools according to law.”
Subsection (c) of Section 26 of Article II reads as fol-
lows :
“It is hereby declared the intent and policy of
the Fifty-second Legislature that the Board shall use
such moneys from the State Hospitals and Special
Schools Building Fund as may be required to repair
and rehabilitate existing buildings and facilities. n
Subsection (f) of Section 10 of Article II provides:
“The Board is authorized to employ such ad-
ditional laborers, skilled laborers, and mechanics
as may be necessary to carry out such major re-
pair and rehabilitation projects which may be fi-
nanced from moneys of the State Hospitals and Spe-
Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 4 (V-1240)
cial Schools Building Fund, in accordance with the
provisions of Section 26 (c) of this Article. Salaries
for such employees shall not exceed the prevailing
wage scale in the locality where the work is done.”
We have found no other provisions in Article 11 which
pertain to your question. It is from this Article, the above
mentioned provisions thereof, and the Act creating the Building
Fund that we must determine whether the Legislature intended
for the provisions of Section 14 to apply to the appropriations
to the Board contained in Section 26.
The Legislative Budget Board was created in 1949.
Acts Slst Leg., R.S., ch. 487, p. 908. The act creating the State
Hospitals and Special Schools Building Fund was passed in 1’950.
Acts 51st Leg., 1st C.S., ch. 1, p. 1. This Act increased the tax-
es on cigarettes until August 31, 1957, and provided that a cer-
tain per cent of the net revenue derived from each of the two
classes of cigarettes defined therein shall be credited to the
Building Fund. It also provided that an amount not to exceed
$S,OOO,OOO shall be credited to such fund for the biennium end-
ing August 31, 1951, and an amount not to exceed $S,OOO,OOg
shall be deposited to the credit of such fund for each fiscal year
thereafter.
The Act contained an appropriation to the Board which
read as follows:
“All funds credited to the State Hospitals and
Special Schools Building Fund under this Act are
hereby appropriated to the Board for Texas State
Hospitals and Special Schools for the purpose of
constructing, repairing and equipping such buildings
as in the opinion of the Board are necessary to the
proper care of those committed or to be committed
to such hospitals and special schools according to
law. Provided, however, the fees paid to an archi-
tect shall not exceed six per cent (6%) for the plans,
specifications and supervisions of said buildings
and all contracts made for and the final acceptance
in connection with such construction other than the
plans and specifications, shall be subject to the re-
view and approval of the Board of Control.”
The Act did not further restrict or restrain the Board
. .
Hon. Larry 0. Cox, Page 5 (V-1240)
in the expenditure of the, appropriations for constructing, re-
pairing, and equipping such buildings as in its opinion are nec-
essary for the proper care of inmates. It contains no reference
whatever to the Legislative Budget Board, which had been prev-
iously created.
There is no material difference in the language found
in that appropriation and the language used by the Legislature
in Section 26 of Article II to make the appropriations contained
therein to the -Board.
The only appropriations contained in Section 1 of Arti-
cle II are “to the Board institutions and the Central 0ffice”of
the Board. The requirement of quarterly budget approval prior
to the obligation or expenditures of any of the funds appropriated
to such institutions or Central Office by the Legislative Budget
Board as provided in the first sentence of Section 14 is applica-
ble only to such appropriations. Since the money appropriated
in Section 26 is to the Board and not to any particular institution
or institutions, it necessarily follows that such appropriations
do not come within the purview of Section 14, unless the conclud-
ing sentence in that Section is applicable to them. That sentence
reads as follows:
‘No moneys herein appropriated shall be expended
until such budget approval shall have been obtained.”
This sentence must be read and considered with the
sentence which precedes it. In other words, all the provisions
of Section 14 must be read and considered together for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the legislative intent. When so read and
considered in connection with all other pertinent facts and cir-
cumstances heretofore noted, we have concluded that the Legis-
lature intended for this sentence to apply only to the appropria-
tions contained in Section 1 of Article II “to the Board institu-
tions and Central Office” specifically mentioned in the first sen-
tence of Section 14.
Consequently, you are advised that we concur in the
opinion of your Board that the provisions of Section 14, Article
II of House Bill No. 426, Acts 52nd Leg., 1951. do not apply to
the appropriations to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and
Special Schools contained in Section 26 of Article II. In answer-
ing this question we have not passed upon or considered the
Hon. Larry 0. Cox. Page 6 (V-1240)
constitutionality of Section 14, Article II of House Bill No. 426,
supra.
SUMMARY
The provisions of Section 14, Article II of House
Bill No. 426, Acts 52nd Leg., R.S., 1951, do not apply
to the app~ropriations to the Board for Texas State
Hospitals and Special Schools contained in Section 26
of Article II of House Bill No. 426 for the purpose of
constructing and repairing buildings.
APPROVED: Yours very, truly,
C. K. Richards PRICE DANIEL
Trial & Appellate Division Attorney General
Everett Hutchinson
Executive Assistant
Charles D. Mathews Bruce W. Bryant
First Assistant Assistant
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