Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-305

Opinion No. 305 State Examiner-Special Examinations -Fees-Fish and Game Commission, HELD: The State F.xaminer may charge the statutory fee for makin~ a special examination of the State Fish and Game Commission hy request. AUl,'tlst 15, 1033. You ha\'e asked whether or not the Sta te Examiner may make a charge fo\' a speCial examination of the Fi~h II 1\(1 Game Commission, b~' request. You have called a ttention to the Laws of 1fl2:3, Chapter 93, Section 2. and the third pamgraVh on page 251. 'I'his para- graph. a part of seetion 2. has been amended by the Laws of 1H2!}. Chapter 1(;7, Section 2, which reads, in part, as follows: "Special examinations may be made of any county, city, town, school dis- trict, irrigation district, high school, bank, huilding and 10fln association or any othel' office, boarll 01' commission, whether temporal"y or penllanent, how- evel' created, and for whatever pm'- pose, having the control, management, collection, or Ilisbursement of any pub, Iic money of any charaetel' or descrip- tion, when in the judgment of the State Examiner it shall be deemed necessary, and such special examina- tions shall be charged for at the rate of Fifteen Dollars ($15,00) per day 208 OPINIONS OF THE ATTOR~EY GENERAL for each examiner emplo~'ed for the time actually consumed, together with ~he necessar~' transportation- - -," It is my opinion that the words in olack type of said section 2 quoted, gives the State Examiner the right to charge the Fish and Game Commission for such special examination, The words of the stlltute lire very broad. There are no commissions. to my knowledgp. in the county. which requirp examina- tions lind in order to g-ive this statute effect it would necessarily have to refpr to sta te commissions, such liS the Fish lind Gllme Commission. . 'Opinion No. 306 County Commissioners-Natural Gas- Pipe Line. No Power to Install -Public Purpose-Bonds -Taxation. HELD: A bOllrd of county commis- sioners hilS no power to sell bonds or raise money by tllxation for the pur- pose of installing or constructing II nat- nral glls line to provide for the sale of gas to the residents of the county. August 15, 1!l33. You request the opinion of this of- fice liS to whether or not the board of county commissioners of Pondera Coun- ty, can sell bonds or raise money lIy tllxation for the purpose of instlllling or constructing a nil turlll gas line for the sale of said glls to residents of the ('ounty. Counties are political subdivisions of t he state, subject to legislative super- vision and control (Majors v. County of Lewis lind Clllrk, 60 Mont. 698) and hllve only such powers liS lire expressly given or necessarily implied. (Morse Y. (jranite Count~', 44 Mont. 78: Yello,v- stone Packing Etc. Co. V. HIlYs, 83 Mont. 1; Ainsworth v. McKay, 55 Mont. 270; Sullivan v. Big Horn County, 66 Mont. 45; In re Hyde Claims, 7 3Mont. 363; Simpson v. Sih'er Bow County, 87 Mont. 83; Lewis Y. Petroleum County, 92 ~lont. 563.) "Powers 1I0t so conferred are in effect denied; a prohibition is im- plied from the failure to grant them." (First National Bank v. l\1issouri, 262 U. S. 640, 665.) SectiOIl 4465 R. C. M. 1921, frequently amended, and re-enacted in full with IIdditions by Chapter 100, Laws of 1931, is the specific grant of general powers by the legislature to the counties. There is no specific power granted covering IIny such proposition as that you sub- mit, lind we do not believe that any stretch of implied power could be made to justify it.