Opinion No.

The Honorable Elizabeth Murray-Kolb Guadalupe County Attorney 101 East Court Street, Suite 104 Seguin, Texas 78155-5779

Re: Authority of a county to lease a generator to a radio station (RQ-0593-GA)

Dear Ms. Murray-Kolb:

The Texas Constitution generally prohibits counties from granting or donating a thing of value to a private entity. See TEX. CONST, arts. Ill, § 52(a), XI, § 3. In light of these prohibitions, you ask whether the expenditure of county funds to purchase a generator to be leased to a radio station violates the Texas Constitution.1

You tell us that KWED 1580 is an AM radio station…