Afew years back, Fayetteville got itself into a fix over illegal exactions, a fancy term for taxes improperly imposed and / or collected. Now it’s Little Rock’s turn. Like countless other communities, Little Rock voters love their libraries to the point of embracing higher taxes for their enhancement even while rejecting taxes for other purposes. Back in December, 65 percent of those going to the polls in a special election approved two ballot proposals for the Central Arkansas Library System, a. k. a. CALS, a 1-mill 20-year tax to repay bonds and a 0. 5-mill permanent tax for operations. With the proceeds, library officials intend to buy more books, hire more staff and build two new facilities, a children’s library close to downtown and a far-flung branch of the main library.
The tax bills that went out in February and March included the new rate. Taxpayers began paying them, either by installments or in full, and library officials began implementing their plans in anticipation of the receipts. Then someone threw a spanner in the works. On the eve of the issuance of $ 32 million worth of bonds, we learned that somebody just might have jumped the gun, that Pulaski County maybe ought to have waited until next year to collect the new taxes.
State law sets a November deadline for counties to establish the tax rate for a given year.
No doubt CALS director Bobby Roberts was chagrined, but he couldn’t have been much surprised. The reason the special election was held in December and not in November, as originally planned, was that public notice hadn’t been published in time. State law also requires at least a 60-day interval between the public notice and the special election.
“It was a series of snafus,” he said back in October when the Little Rock Board of Directors learned that it had not let enough time elapse. “We’ll just have another 30 days to work on it. That may be good.” Or not. It would seem that the series of snafus continued on into 2008, culminating in the belated discovery of another state law that sets a November deadline for counties to establish the tax rate for a given year. Apparently, it was only the public that discovered this, however. Recent comments by some of the parties involved suggest that they knew how they were going about things could be problematic. Roberts says he didn’t. He says attorneys from all sides agreed that the new millage could be included in the 2007 tax bills that went out this year.
“Everybody up and down the line said this is fine,” he told our reporter Michelle Hillen last week. “As far as I know, there was never an indication that this was not something that could have been done or it wouldn’t have been done.” On Monday, he said he wants the city of Little Rock to delay issuing the bonds until a ruling is made on the legality of collecting the higher millage this year, which has already begun. He added that he might file a lawsuit himself.
In the meantime, city and county officials are wondering what all the fuss is about. As Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines has pointed out, “We have done it in the past for other things that changed like this.” What all the fuss is about is the product of the Democrat-Gazette’s recent inquiries. The newspaper asked seasoned tax lawyer Eugene Sayre to examine the city ordinances, the state code and Villines’ order raising the millage rate per the Dec. 11 vote and offer his opinion about whether all the I’s had been dotted and the T’s crossed. Sayre said they hadn’t been. City and county attorneys contend that, between state law and Amendment 55 of the Arkansas Constitution, there was enough administrative leeway to permit holding the election in December instead of November because such tardiness isn’t strictly prohibited. Nice work if you can get it. Ah, if only matters had proceeded apace. As Hillen has reminded us, library officials unveiled the millage increase at a public hearing last May. By August, they’d collected enough signatures to place the proposal on a special election ballot, leaving just enough time, and maybe even a little more, for giving formal notice of an election to be held in November. But no, that’s just not how we do things around here. Around here, we tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Update The search for what my late father did in the war is producing a lot of good leads. My thanks to all who have written and phoned with information or encouragement. I hope to have an update for you soon.
—–––––•–––––—Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
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