Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO95-008 Page: 4 of 5
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Honorable Hugo Berlanga - Page 4
line with the above discussion, we do not believe that a section 262.005 transfer "to a
municipality or another person" for purposes completely unrelated to the provision and
operation of hospitals would be valid, given the public purpose requirements of article III,
section 52. On the other hand, whether any given transfer for health-related purposes,
such as those you ask about, would be sufficiently related to hospital purposes would, in
our opinion, involve questions of fact which we cannot resolve. Furthermore, a court in
considering these issues would, we think, consider the overall factual scenario. For
example, in determining whether to permit transfer of the assets in question for particular
uses in the health care area which did not strictly involve hospital purposes, a court might
well be influenced by evidence that there were in fact no need for additional resources for
the provision and operation of public hospitals in the environs. At any rate, in that factual
issues come into play in determining the lawfulness of the particular transfers you ask
about, we do not attempt to determine here whether the specific proposed transfers you
ask about would be permissible.3
3We note specifically that we do not speculate under what circumstances a "local government
corporation" created under the Texas Transportation Corporation Act, V.T.C.S. article 15281-one of the
proposed transferees of the authority's assets you ask about-might have authority to provide heath
services sufficiently related to hospital purposes to justify transfer of the assets at issue to that entity.
We also note that you indicate that one of the proposed transferees is a "charitable foundation"
for the promotion of "the public interest in health care accessibility, health care research and education,
and related purposes in ... the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas." Although, under section 262.003(c),
a municipal hospital authority is "composed" of the territory of the municipality, section 262.022(a)
provides that the hospitals it provides or operates "may be located outside the municipality or
municipalities." We do not think section 262.022(a) was intended to empower a municipal health
authority to operate a hospital anywhere in the state (or the country); presumably its services must be
reasonably centered on the territory of the municipality. Similarly, we believe that the services to be
provided by a transferee of the assets must reasonably relate to the territory of the municipality.
Determining whether they do so relate, however, would again, we think, require consideration of all
relevant facts.(Lo095-008)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO95-008, text, March 17, 1995; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth276494/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.