Counties

OPINION 50-30 February 14, 1950 COUNTIES RE: Commissioners May Not Allot Funds Among Districts to be Spent by Individual Commissioners I am in receipt of your letter of February 7, 1950. In your letter you state that the board of county commissioners has in mind some sort of allocation of funds to the different commissioner districts. That this allocation would “take the total amount of money raised by taxation within the county and dividing the same by the number of commissioner districts, and then let each commissioner spend his share of said money in his respective commissioner district.” I do not see how such a procedure would be possible even with the consent of the commissioners themselves, much less if there is disagreement among the commissioners. The county money is spent by the board of county commissioners acting as a board and must conform to the budget which has been drawn up for the county. There is no provision for spending the money by any single commissioner acting alone. Nor do I think it is possible by organizing the county districts by townships to accomplish this result. If the money is raised by the township it is spent by the township officers. Therefore, it is my opinion that the board of county commissioners may not allocate the county funds according to commissioner districts, nor may they accomplish this result by organizing each district into townships and have a township raise the money so that it may be spent by the separate commissioners.