Opinion Letter to The Honorable Harry Hill

~&~~~· JEFFERSON CITY JOHN ASHCROFT 6SI02 ATTORNEY GENERAL February 11, 1980 Honorable Harry Hill Representative, District 2 R. R. #1 Novinger, Missouri 63559 Dear Representative Hill: OPINION LETTER NO. 36 (314) 7SI-3321 This letter is in response to your request for an official opinion on the question of whether idle funds of state univer- sities may be deposited in savings and loan associations in Missouri . You further specify that your request relates to funds held by Northeast Missouri State University which were donated to the university by private citizens . Section 369.194, RSMo 1978, appears to relate to the above question. That section provides inter alia: Savings accounts in insured associations are legal and proper investments or de- positaries for fiduciaries of every kind and nature, all political subdivisions or instrumentalities of this state [emphasis added] • • • and each and all of them may invest funds in savings accounts in such associations . This section makes savings and loan associations "legal deposi- taries" for "instrumentalities of this state." Therefore, if the university can be deemed an "instrumentality" of the state, the section is applicable. . In.state ex rel. Thompson v . Board of Regents For Northeast M1ssour1 State Teachers ' College, 305 Mo. 57, 264 S.W. 698, 700 (bane 1924) the court specif1cally found that the Board of Regents of Northeast Missouri State Teachers ' College was an instrumentality of the state. Thus, due to the university's status as an instru- mentality of the state, § 369.194 makes savings accounts in insured savings and loan associations legal and proper investments or de- positaries for the university. Honorable Harry Hill We are enclosing for your reference Op. No . 62 , Mallory, March 19, 1975, a portion of which deals with the question of the necessary security for investments in savings and loan associations. Enc. Op. No. 62 Very truly yours, ~CROFT~~~~~~---­ Attorney General -2-