Texas Attorney General Opinion: WW-563 Page: 2 of 4
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Hon. W. W. Glass, page 2 (WW-563)
Committees may set reasonable limits on such legis-
lative expense."
Section 24, Article Ill, Constitution of Texas, provides as fol-
lows:
"Members of the Legislature shall receive from the
public Treasury a per diem of not exceeding Twenty-five
($25.00) Dollars per day for the first 120 days only of
each session of the legislature.
"In addition to the per diem the members of each House
shall be entitled to mileage in going to and returning from
the seat of government, which mileage shall not exceed $2.50
for every 25 miles, the distance to be computed by the
nearest and most direct route of travel, from a table of
distances prepared by the Comptroller, to each county seat
now or hereafter to be established; no member to be entitled
to mileage for any extra session that may be called within
one day after the adjournment of a regular or called session."
The Supreme Court of Texas in Spears v. Sheppard, 136 Tex. 277,
150 S.W.2d 769 (1941), in construing the provisions of Section 24 of
Article III of the Constitution of Texas, held:
". o Moreover, the compensation provided for in this
Article of the Constitution covers and includes all services
that may be required of the member during his entire term of
office, including the time served by him on committees be-
tween sessions of the Legislature. . . "
Likewise, it is stated in Walker v. Baker, 145 Tex. 121, 196 S.W.
2d 324 (1946)z
" .O This per diem multiplied by the number of days
the Legislature remains in regular or called session, is the
entire compensation a member is entitled to receive, and for
it he must attend the legislative sessions and perform all
the other duties of his office each bienniun. . . ."
Attorney Generals' Opinions WW-148 (1957), WW-131 (1957), and
0-3778 (1941) conclude that expenses incurred as a result of the activi-
ties of the Legislature may properly be divided into two categories
which are "legislative" and "personal." The Legislature is authorized
to provide for the payment of "legislative" expense, but cannot authorize
the payment of "personal" expense by the use of public moneys. The differ-
ence between legislative and personal expense has been defined as follows:
"It is believed that the matter of Legislative and
personal expense may be reationalized as follows. Legis-
lative expense is that incident to the workings of the
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: WW-563, text, March 3, 1959; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth267175/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.