Eureka Springs Times-Echo

Attorney Matt Bishop of Fayetteville on Monday filed notice of his intent to appeal an injunction granted by a Pulaski County judge that prohibits Bishop and co-counsel Wendy Howerton from attempting to collect more than $2 million paid by property owners through an $18 assessment on real estate tax bills in Carroll and five other counties in northern Arkansas.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox had issued an order Sept. 1 granting the injunction requested by Lance Miller, attorney for Bank OZK, to stop Bishop and Howerton from attempting to garnish $2,339,686.59 being held by the bank. Bank OZK is the trustee for the bondholders who bought more than $12 million in bonds issued by the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District in 2005 to to finance the purchase of a now-defunct landfill in Baxter County.

The $18 annual fee, imposed by Fox’s order, had been intended to repay the bondholders and also to reimburse the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for a portion of the costs of cleaning up the discarded landfill.

Matt Bishop and Howerton filed successful class-action lawsuits in each of the six counties where the fee was imposed. Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott 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.

Jackson had ordered Bank OZK at the conclusion of an Aug. 15 hearing in Eureka Springs to deposit $433,987.10 collected from Carroll County taxpayers into the local court registry or be fined $500 a day. That money was collected in 2018 and 2019.