Texas Advisory Opinions January 14, 1959: AGO WW-545 (January 14, 1959)
Collection: Texas Attorney General Opinions
Docket: AGO WW-545
Date: Jan. 14, 1959
Advisory Opinion Text
No. WW-0545 (1959).
Commissioner of Education
Austin, Texas
You request our opinion regarding the application of Chapter 528, Acts 1955, 54th Legislature, Regular Session, (S.B. 116), as amended, codified as Article 2784e-1, V.C.S., to an independent school district wherein a maximum annual maintenance tax of $1.30, instead of $1.50, has been authorized at an election wherein a proposition similar to the following was submitted:
In Subsection 1 of Section 1 of Article 2784e-1, supra, it is stated that such districts may levy an annual maintenance tax" ... not to exceed ... One Dollar and Fifty Cents ($1.50) on the One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) assessed value of taxable"Shall the (governing body) of the _____ Independent School District be authorized to assess, levy, and collect an annual ad valorem tax of not to exceed One Dollar and Thirty Cents ($1.30) on the One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) valuation of taxable property in said District for the further maintenance of public free schools, as authorized by Chapter 528, Acts 1955, 54th Legislature, Regular Session, as amended, provided that such tax shall not exceed in any year the limits prescribed by said Chapter."
Section 3 of the statute contains the following:"No tax shall be levied, collected, abrogated, diminished , or increased , and no bond shall be issued hereunder until such action has been authorized by a majority of the votes cast at an election held in the district for such purposes, at which none but property taxpaying qualified voters of such district, whose property has been duly rendered for taxation, shall be entitled to vote." (Emphasis ours)
"... this Act shall not apply to any school district until and unless a maintenance tax hereunder is adopted by majority vote of the resident, qualified, property tax-paying voters of the district who own taxable property therein and which has been duly rendered for taxation, voting at an election therefor, and if such tax is so adopted, then the provisions of this Act shall apply to such District ;" (Emphasis ours)
This construction of the statute is reflected in the established policy of the Attorney General who has in several instances approved bonds issued by independent school districts under the provisions of said Article 2784e-1 where the authorized maximum annual maintenance tax was less than $1.50.
SUMMARY
Article 2784e-1, V.C.S., as amended, applies to an independent school district wherein a maximum annual maintenance tax of $1.30, instead of $1.50, has been properly authorized by election under said statute.
WILL WILSON
Attorney General
By:/s
Howard W. Mays
Assistant
HWM-s
APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE
George P. Blackburn, Chairman
Marietta Payne
Jack Goodman
Byron Fullerton
L. P. Lollar
Henry G. Braswell
REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
By: W. V. Geppert