Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

The Attorney General of Texas
July 5, 1982
MARK WHITE
Attorney General
Supreme Court Building Mr. Evans N. Wents Opinion No. ?w482
P. 0. Box 12546
Executive Director
Austin, TX. 76711. 2546
51214752501
State Commission for the Blind Re: Authority of Commission
Telex 9101674-1367 P. 0. Box 12866 for the Blind to guarantee
Telecopier 5121475.0266 Austin, Texas 78711 loan repayments
Dear Mr. Wents:
1607 Main St., Suite 1400
Dallas. TX. 75201.4709
2141742.6944 The Sixty-seventh Legislature enacted section 91.0301 of the
Human Resources Code, which provides as follows:
4624 Alberta Ave., Suite 160
(a) The [C]ommission [for the Blind] may
El Paso, TX. 79905.2793
9151533.3464
establish a program to make loans to finance the
purchase of technological aids for visually
handicapped persons. Interest on the loans may
1220 Dallas Ave.. Suite 202 not exceed 10 percent a year.
Houston, TX. 77002-6966
7131650-0666
(b) The director may promulgate rules to
administer the loan program.
606 Broadway. Suite 312
Lubbock, TX. 79401.3479 Acts 1981, 67th Leg., ch. 126, at 317.
6061747-5236
You state as follows:
4309 N. Tenth, Suite S
McAllen, TX. 76501-1685 It has been suggested that the commission
5121662.4547 would be more prudent and achieve better results
by arranging the specific loans through existing
200 Main Plaza. Suite 400
bank channels and acting as guarantor for the
San Antonio, TX. 76205.2797 loans, it being understood that the exposure of
5121225.4191 the commission would be limited to the specific
portion of its endowment funds restricted to such
An Equal Opportunity/
use.
Affirmative Action Employer
This suggestion has merit in that it does not
involve the commission in the direct management of
a loan fund, and it works to establish the credit
record or history of the borrowers in the
commercial market.
p. 1701
.i .
Mr. Evans N. Wentz - Page 2 (kg+482)
You ask:
Does the commission need specific legislative
authority to enter into a program calling for it
to guarantee loan repayments, using a portion of
its endowments as collateral?
Administrative agencies have only those powers expressly granted by
statute or necessarily implied therein. Stauffer v. City of San
Antonio, 344 S.W.2d 158 (Tex. 1961); State v. Jackson, 376 S.W.2d 341
(Tex. 1964). If applicable statutes do not grant an agency the power
to do a particular thing, then the agency has no such power. Nueces
County Water Control and Improvement District No. 3 v. Texas Water
Rights Commission, 481 S.W.2d 924 (Tex. Civ. App. - Austin 1972, writ
ref'd n.r.e.); Martinez v. Texas Employment Commission, 570 S.W.Zd 28
(Tex. Civ. App. - Corpus Christ1 1978, no writ).
Section 91.0301 clearly does not expressly authorize the loan
program you describe. The remaining question is whether it impliedly
authorizes such a program. We answer in the negative. In our
opinion, the power to establish a loan program through bank channels,
with the cosuaission acting as guarantor on the loans and using a
portion of its endowments as collateral, simply cannot be said to be
reasonably implied in a statute which merely authorizes the commission
to establish and operate a loan program itself. If nothing else, the
fact that the loan program would be administered by banks, rather than
by the commission, is, in our opinion, sufficient to enable us to
conclude that the proposed program is too different from the program
contemplated by section 91.0301 to be permissible under that section.
The proposed loan program may be one which the legislature would
authorize if it considered the matter. We must take statutes as we
find them. however. and we cannot read into them more than their words
will clearly sanction and fairly sustain. Texas Highway Commission v.
El Paso Building and Construction Trades Council, 234 S.W.2d 857 (Tex.
1950); Railroad Conrmissionof Texas v. Miller, 434 S.W.Zd 670 (Tex.
1968). We therefore conclude that express or implied authority for
the loan program you describe is necessary (assuming, of course: that
such authority is provided in accordance with the requirements of the
Texas Constitution), and that section 91.0301 of the Human Resources
Code does not furnish such authority. You do not ask and we do not
address any question relating to the constitutionality of section
91.0301.
SUMMARY
Section 91.0301 of the Human Resources Code
does not authorize the Commission for the Blind to
p. 1702
Mr. Evans N. Wents - Page 3 (MW-482)
establish, through existing bank channels, a
program to make loans to finance the purchase of
technological aids to visually handicapped
persons, with the commission acting as guarantor
on the loans and using a portion of its endowments
as collateral.
MARK WHITE
Attorney General of Texas
JOHN W. FAINTER, JR.
First Assistant Attorney General
RICHARD E. GRAY III
Executive Assistant Attorney General
Prepared by Jon Bible
Assistant Attorney General
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
Susan L. Garrison, Chairman
Jon Bible
Patricia Hinojosa
Jim Moellinger
Bruce Youngblood
p. 1703