Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 375
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TEXAS STATE CONSTITUTION. 375
Article IX.-(Continued.)
where is defined in this Constitution. The
office of Justice of the Peace may be made
either elective or appointive. Other than as
herein provided, no such charter shall pro-
vide for altering the jurisdiction or procedure
of any court. The duties of District Attorney
and/or County Attorney may be confined to
representing the State in civil cases to which
the State is a party and to enforcement of
the State penal code, and the compensation
of said attorneys may be fixed on a salary
basis in lieu of fees.
c, Save as hereinabove and hereinafter oth-
erwise provided, such charters, within the
limits expressed therein. may invest the gov-
erning body to be established for any county
electing to operate hereunder with the power
to create, consolidate or abolish any office or
department, whether created by other provi-
sions of the Constitution or by statute, define
the duties thereof, fix the compensation for
service therein, make the same elective or
appointive and prescribe the time, qualifica-
tions and conditions for tenure in any such
office; save, that no such charter other than
as hereinbefore authorized, shall provide to
regulate the status, service, duties or com-
pensation of members of the Legislature,
Judges of the courts, District Attorneys,
County Attorneys, or any office whatever by
the law of the State required to be filled by
an election embracing more than one county.
Excepting herefrom nominations, elections or
appointments to offices, the terms whereof
may not have expired prior to the adoption of
this amendment to the Constitution, at such
time as a charter provision adopted hereunder-
may be in effect (save as to those offices
which must continue to be elective, as herein
elsewhere specified), all terms of county offi-
cers and all contracts for the giving of service
by deputies under such officers, may be sub-
ject to termination by the administrative body
of the county, under an adopted charter so
providing, and there shall be no liability by
reason thereof.
d. Any county electing to operate hereunder
shall have the power, by charter provision, to
levy, assess and collect taxes, and to fix the
maximum rate for ad valorem taxes to be
levied for specific purposes, in accordance
with the Constitution and laws of this State.
provided, however, that the limit of the ag-
gregate taxes which may be levied, assessed
and collected hereunder shall not exceed the
limit or total fixed, or hereafter to be fixed
by this Constitution to control counties, and
the annual assessment upon property, both
real, personal and mixed, shall be a first
superior and prior lien thereon.
e. In addition to the power herein- pro-
vided, and in addition to powers included in
county home rule charters, any county may,
by a majority vote of the qualified electors
of said county, amend its charter to include
other powers, functions, duties and rights
which now or hereafter may be provided by
this Constitution and the statutes of the State
for counties.
(4) Any county operating hereunder shall
have the power to borrow money for all pur-
poses lawful under its charter, to include the
refunding of a lawful debt, in a manner con-
forming to the general laws of the State, and
may issue therefor its obligations. Such obli-
gations, other than those to refund a lawful
debt, shall not be valid unless authorized by
a majority of all votes cast by those resident
qualified voters of the area affected by the
taxes required to retire such obligations, who
may vote thereon. In case of county obliga-
tions, maturing after a period of five (5)
years, the same shall be issued to mature
serially, fixing the first maturity of principal
at a time not to exceed two (2) years next
after the date of the issuance of such obliga-tions. Such obligations may pledge the full
faith and credit of the county; but in no
event shall the aggregate obligations so is-
sued, in principal amount outstanding at any
one time, exceed the then existing constitu-
tional limits for such obligations and such
indebtedness and its supporting tax shall con-
stitute a first and superior lien upon the
property taxable in such county. No obliga-
tion issued hereunder shall be valid unless
prior to the time of the issuance thereof there
be levied a tax sufficient to retire the same as
it matures, which tax shall not exceed the
then existing constitutional limits.
(5) Such charter may authorize the govern-
ing body of a county operating hereunder to
prescribe the schedule of fees to be charged
by the officers of the county for specified
service, to be in lieu of the schedule for such
fees prescribed by the general laws of the
State; and, to appropriate such fees to such
funds as the charter may prescribe; provided,
however, no fees for a specified service shall
exceed in amount the fee fixed by general law
for that same service. Such charter as to all
judicial officers, other than District Judges,
may prescribe the qualifications for services,
provided the standards therefor be not lower
than those fixed by the general laws of the
State.
(6) a. Subject to the express limitations
upon the exercise of the powers of this sub-
division to be authorized, such charters may
provide (or omit to provide) that the govern-
mental and/or proprietary functions of any
city, town, district or other defined political
subdivision (which is a governmental agency
and embraced within the boundaries of the
county) be transferred, either as to some or
all of the functions thereof, and yielded to the
control of the administrative body of the
county. No such transfer or yielding of func-
tions may be effected, unless the proposal is
submitted to a vote of the people and, un-
less otherwise provided by a two-thirds vote
of the total membership of each house of the
Legislature, such a proposal shall be submit-
ter as a separate issue, and the vote within
and without any such city, town, district, or
other defined governmental entity, shall be
separately cast and counted, and unless two
thirds of the qualified votes east within the
yielding defined governmental entity, and a
majority of the qualified votes cast in the re-
mainder of the county, favor the proposed
merger, it shall not be effected. In case of the
mergers hereby authorized, without express
charter provision therefor, in so far as may
be required to make effective the object of
the proposed merger, the county shall suc-
ceed to all the appropriate lawful powers.
duties, rights, procedures, restrictions and
limitations which prior to the merger were
reposed in, or imposed upon, the yielding gov-
mental agency. Particularly, it is provided
that the power to create funded indebtedness
and to levy taxes in support thereof may be
exercised only by such procedures, and within
such limits, as now are, or hereafter may be
provided by law to control such appropriate
other governmental agencies were they to be
independently administered. Such mergers
may be effected under proposed contracts
between the county and any such yielding
governmental agency, to be approved at an
election as hereinbefore provided for. In order
to increase governmental efficiency and effect
economy the county may contract with the
principal city of the county to perform one
or more of its functions, provided such con-
tracts shall not be valid for more than two
(2) years.
b. In case of the partial or complete merger
of the government of a city operating under a
home rule charter with the government of a
county operating hereunder, those city char-
ter provisions affected thereby shall cease to
control, and the county charter provisions
shall control.
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/377/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.