The opinion
EATTTOECNEY GENERAL
~FTEXAS
August 20. 1951
Hon. Robert S. Calvert
Comptroller of Public Accounts
Austin, Texas Opinion No. V-1243
Re.: Legality of paying for clas-
sified advertising from any
appropriation other than that
specific appropriation to tht
State Board of Control for
Dear Sir: “advertising State’s business.”
Your request for an opinion reads as follows:
“In the departmental appropriation bill under
which we are now operating is found the foIlowing
. .
appropriation for mamtenance and miscellaneous
operating expense for the State Board of Control:
* ‘Bonds for employees. fuel, water, lights,
furniture, fixtures, office equipment, photostat sup-
plies, printing and binding, paper Andyoffice supplies,
support and maintenance of public buildings and
grounds, including extra help and supplies, testing
of materials, duplicating machine clupplits, equip-
ment, telephone, telegraph, postage, stationery, books,
advertising State’s business, express and drayage,
travel expenses, typewriter parts and supplies, auto-
motive equipment, elevator maintenance, salaries,
air conditioning maintenance, uniforms, photograph-
ic equipment, receptionist supplies and equipment,
flags, contingencies, and maintenance of State Cemc-
tery.’
“There have been presented to me accounts for
advertising State’s business drawn against appropria-
tions other than the one quoted iboue. For a specific
example, see photostatic copy of the attached claim.
Hon. Robert S. Calvert, Page 2 (V-1243)
f
The appropriations do not specifically provide for ‘I
I
the advertising of State’s business.
“Provisions for the Board of Control to do
such advertising may be found in R,C.S., Articles
610, 634, 643, 650, 666, and others as amended.
“QUESTION: Would the passing of accounts
incurred to comply with above quoted statutory
provisions against appropriations which do not con-
tain a specific appropriation for advertising State’s
business be in violation of general rider 15-b of the
departmental appropriation bill which provides in
part as follows:
” ‘The appropriations herein provided are to
be construed as the maximum sums to be appro-
priated to and for the several purposes named here-
in, and the amounts are intended to cover, and shall
cover the entire cost of the respective items and the
same shall not be supplemented from any other
sources.“-
Article 666b, V.C.S., reads, in part, as follows:
“Section 1, Hereafter all departments and agen-:,
ties of the State Government, when ,rental space is
needed for carr,ying on the essential functions of such
agencies or departments of the State Government, shall
submit to the State Board’of Control a request.there-
for, giving the type> kind, and size of building needed,
t,ogether with any other necessary description, and
stating the purpose for which it will be used and the
need therefor.
“Sec. 2. The State Board of CQntrol, upon re-
ceipt of such request, and if the money has been made
available to pay the rental thereon, and.if; in the dis-
cretion of the Board such space is needed, shall forth-, ‘,
with advertise in a newspaper, which has been regu-
larly published and circulated in the city, or town,
where such rental space is sought, for bids on such
rental space, for the uses indicated and for a period
of not to exceed two years. After such bids have been
Hon. Robert S. Calve& Page 3 (V-1243)
received by the State Board of Control at its prin-
cipal office in Austin, Texas, and publicly opened,
the award for such rental contract will be made to
the lowest and best bidder, and upon such other terms
as may be agreed upon. The terms of the contract,
together with the notice of the award of the State
Board of Control will be submitted to the Attorney
General of Texas, who will cause to be prepared
and executed in accordance with the terms of the;
agreement, such contract in quadruplicate; one cf
which, will be kept by each party thereto, one by the
State Board of Control, and one by the Attorney Gen-
eral of Texas. The parties to such contract will
be the department or agency of the government
using the space as lessee and the party renting
the space as lessor.”
The foregoing Article makes no provision for the pay-
ment of advertising for bids on rental space. It requires the
agency desiring the rental space to submit to the State Board
of Control a request to obtain such space for it. If the Board,
in the exercise of its discretion, finds such space is needed by
the agency, it then becomes its duty to advertise for bids in a
newspaper which has been regularly published and circulated
in the city or town where such rental space is sought, unless
the request comes within one of the exceptions contained in
Section 4 of Article 666b.
The appropriations for the support and maintenance
of the executive and administrative departments and agencies
of the State for the current biennium are contained in the De-
partmental Appropriation Bill. (H.B. 322, Acts 51st Leg., R.S.
1949, ch. 615, pp. 1208 et seq.) The appropriations to the State
Board of Control are found at pages 1232 through 1236. Item
78 of these appropriations, which has been quoted in your re-
quest, isfor printing, contingencies, “‘advertising State’s busi-
ness,” and other purposes.
The photostatic copy of the claim attached to your
letter, as an example of such claims presented to you by other
agencies having appropriations in House Bill 322, is for adver-
tising in a newspaper for bids on rental space, under the pro-
visions of Article 666b, for the Texas Liquor Control Board.
The claim was approved by that Board for payment out of Item
Hoii. Robert S. Calvert, Page 4 (V-1243)
50 of its current appropriation for printing, contingent ex-
penses, and other purposes. Neither ““advertising State’s
business” nor cost of advertising for rental space is spe-
cifically mentioned in Item 50.
We have also examined the appropriations made to
each of the other departments, boards, commissions, and
other State agencies named in House Bill 322, and in all other
Departmental Appropriations Bills passed since 1941, which
have had an appropriation for the payment of rental space and
have not found in any of them either a specific appropriation
for ‘“advertising State”s business” or for the payment of the
cost of advertising.for bids on rental space. It appears that
Item 78 of the Appropriations to the State Board of Control is
the only existing specific appropriation for ‘“advertising State’s
business.”
Since ArtiCle 666b does not specifically provide for
the payment of advertising for bids on rental space by the
Board of Control or by the department or agency for which
such space is sought, and no specific appropriation having been
made to any such agency for the payment of such advertising,
it becomes necessary for us to determine whether the Legis-
lature intended for the cost of advertising for bids on rental
space to be paid by the Board out of its appropriation for “ad-
vertising State’s business” contained in Item 78 of its current
appropriations,
We have examined the appropriations made to the
State Board of Control in each of the respective departmental
appropriations bills, including the one for the biennium ending
August 31, 1921, which became available to the Board January
1, 1920, and the appropriations for the biennium beginning
September 1, 1951, and have found in each of them a specific
appropriation for “advertising State’s business,‘” except in the
appropriations for the biennium ending August 31, 1921. How-
ever, the Legislature included therein an appropriation of
$30,000 for the period beginning January 1, 1920, and ending
August 31, 1920, and a like amount for the fisc~al year ending
August 31’,’ I921, to be expended by the Board for such pur:~
poses as it ““may find necessary to effectuate the purposes” :
of the Act creating the Board. One of the undoubted purposes
for which these appropriations were made was to pay the cost
of advertising in newspapers for bids on contracts for sup-
plies.
_I -
Hon. Robert S. Calvert, Page 5 (V-1243)
Consequently, the State Board of Control has been
from the time of~its creation, January 1, 1920, continuously
charged with the duty of advertising for bids on contracts for
such supplies as it was required to purchase for the use of
the State, its departments and institutions, except such sup-
plies as it was authorized to purchase without the necessity
of first advertising for bids thereon, and has had at all times
an appropriation for “advertising State’s business” which
clearly includes the payment of advertising for bids on con-
tracts for such supplies.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, we have con-
cluded that it was the intent and purpose of the Legislature
that the expenses incurred for advertising for bids on rental
space sought by an agency of the State under the provisions
of Article 666b. V.C.S., would be paid out of the appropria-
tions to the State Board of Control for “advertising State’s
business,” for such advertising undoubtedly comes within
the meaning of that term as used in Item 78 of the Board’s
.
appropriattons for the current biennium. If such had not
been the legislative intent of the Forty-eighth Legislature
which passed the Act from which this Article was codified,
and all other Legislatures, including the Fifty-second, which
have kbnvened since 1943, they undoubtedly would have made
other specific provision for the payment of such advertis-
ing.
You are therefore advised that the only available
appropriation for the payment of advertising in newspapers
for bids on rental space required by Article 666b, V.C.S.,
is contained in Item 78 of the appropriations to the State
Board of Control for the current biennium. The payment
inquired about cannot be made from other funds.
SUMMARY
The appropriation for “advertising State’s
business” contained in Item 78 of the appropria-
tions to the State Board of Control for the current
Han, Robert S. Calvert, Page 6 (V-1243)
biennium is now the only available appropria-
tion for the payment of advertising for bids on
rental space required by Article 666b, V.C.S.,
H.B. 322, Acts 51st Leg., R.S. 1949, ch. 615,
p: 1235.
APPROVED: Yours very truly,
C. K. Richards PRICE DANIEL
Trial & Appellate Division Attorney General
* .~.. ;i s
Everett Hutchinson ,.d
Executive Assistant
BY
Charles D. Mathews Bruce W. Bryant
First Assistant Assistant
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