AG: Agencies can operate with no budgets
But based on the 2009 opinion of the Attorney General Jim Hood’s office, his agency will continue to receive funding even if not funded by the Legislature because it has specific duties spelled out in the Constitution.
Those duties include the responsibility to represent the state in civil and criminal litigation and to protect the treasury. But other functions of the office, only provided by laws passed by the Legislature, could not continue to operate without a legislative appropriation, according to the opinion.
The opinion does not address specifically the budgets for the Department of Transportation and the state Aid Road Program. Section 170 of the Constitution does reference a highway commission performing maintenance and construction, but it is not certain whether it is mandated that the duty be performed continuously.
Daily Journal
4/25/17
Magnolia Tribune
