A hearing has been scheduled Tuesday, Aug. 15, in the ongoing class-action lawsuit over the “$18 fee” that was included on real-estate tax bills for Carroll County property owners in 2018 and 2019.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in Carroll County Circuit Court in Eureka Springs.
After a hearing on May 23, Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson ordered Bank OZK, headquartered in Little Rock, to remit more than more than $400,000 to the registry of the county circuit clerk.
Attorney Lance R. Miller, representing Bank OZK, filed a motion the same day requesting a stay on enforcement of Jackson’s order. Bank OZK also posted a bond that Miller’s motion says will protect the plaintiffs’ interest until Bank OZK’s appeal is resolved.
Miller filed a notice of appeal on behalf of Bank OZK on July 5 The funds, totaling $433,987.10, were collected from Carroll County taxpayers in 2018 and 2019 through the $18 annual fee imposed by the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District for each real estate parcel in six counties in northern Arkansas. The fee was intended to repay bondholders who bought more than $12 million in bonds issued by the solid waste district in 2005 to finance the purchase of a now-defunct landfill in Baxter County. Revenue generated through the fee, which had been expected to continue for 30 years or more, also was intended to repay the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for a portion of the costs of cleaning up the discarded landfill.
The fee was collected in Carroll, Baxter, Boone, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties, which all were included in the the solid waste district before Carroll County withdrew to form its own solid waste district in 2020.
The fee was imposed under an order from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox, who presided over a case in which Bank of the Ozarks (now Bank OZK), acting as a trustee for the bondholders, sued the solid waste district. Fox’s order followed the recommendation of Geoffrey Treece, a Little Rock attorney whom the judge appointed to serve as a receiver for the solid waste district. Fox discharged Treece from the case in October 2020.
Fayetteville attorneys Matt Bishop and Wendy Howerton filed successful class-action lawsuits in each of the six counties where the fee was imposed. Jackson ruled in April 2020 that the $18 fee was actually an illegal tax. That ruling was not appealed and the fee is no longer being collected.
Still at issue, however, is the disposition of more than $2 million collected from property owners in the six counties in 2018 and 2019. That money had been deposited in the registry of the Pulaski County Circuit Court but was transferred to Bank OZK in March.
After hearing arguments from Bishop and Miller at the May 23 hearing, Jackson said the money collected from Carroll County taxpayers should be remitted to the local circuit clerk’s registry and ultimately to the taxpayers.
“That money’s held by (Bank OZK),” Jackson said. “It’s traceable. It’s being kept separate, and it has been awarded to the taxpayers of Carroll County.”
Before Jackson’s ruling, Miller acknowledged that Bank OZK has possession of the money. Bank OZK is the trustee for the bondholders.
