Santa won’t be delivering refunds for fees collected in six North Central Arkansas counties as payment for the debt incurred to purchase the NABORS waste hauling operation and landfill in Baxter County. However, a series of court rulings point to the first of the refunds being delivered early in the new year.
Fayetteville attorney Matt Bishop says property taxpayers in Baxter, Marion, Newton and Carroll counties should receive a portion of the fees for one of the three years they were paid in early 2022. While plans of distribution have been approved for these four counties, Boone and Searcy counties still have hurdles to clear in the courts for reimbursements to be made.
Bishop and his wife, Wendy Howerton, who is also an attorney, filed a series of class-action lawsuits in the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District’s six counties beginning in May 2018.
The approval of the plans of distribution follow a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge’s ruling in late 2020 ending the collection of an annual assessment fee. The lawsuits filed by the Fayetteville attorneys maintain the solid waste district does not have the authority to impose a fee without providing services and the fee is excessive.
Bishop says when the first rounds of the refunds are distributed, taxpayers will receive a portion of the $18 per parcel paid for 2019 after expenses. He says Bank of the Ozarks, serving as trustee of the bondholders, is continuing the legal fight, even though the circuit courts in the six counties have ruled the fee collection is an illegal exaction.
Listen:
Bishop says he has mixed feelings about the progress to date in the lawsuits, noting without the litigation taxpayers would have been paying this fee for 25 years.
Listen:
Bishop says he is glad Arkansas has preserved class action in the manner in which it has. But he says he is afraid efforts like these lawsuits could be even tougher in the future.
He says those private citizens who step forward and put their names on these cases need to be appreciated.
Listen:
In an earlier interview, Bishop told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot news, these suits are the result of a conversation over dinner with his step-father who commented the collection was ridiculous, noting no one bails him out if he makes a bad investment. Bishop says the conversation piqued his interest.
BACKGROUND
The Pulaski County Circuit Court judge’s ruling in 2020 followed action earlier that year by the Arkansas legislature with the first step toward relief for property owners in the solid waste district. Retirement of the debt included payoff of over $12 million to bond holders, plus approximately $18 million to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for the expense of closing the local landfill. The combined $30 million expense was estimated to take 30 years for a payoff.
Special language in a legislative appropriation bill in 2020 set aside the funding ADEQ could recoup for its expenses in closing the landfill, leaving unanswered the outcome of the $12 million to the bondholders.
The operation was purchased in 2005 by the solid waste district. The district defaulted on the payment of principal and interest to the bondholders in November 2012 and stopped trash collections. Two years later, the district sought bankruptcy protection, with a federal court judge throwing out the case.
After the district defaulted on its debt, Bank of the Ozarks — as trustee of the bondholders — sued the district in Pulaski County Circuit Court, leading to the judgment in 2017 and the controversial annual fee.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI