There are differing opinions as to whether a ballot measure to reduce the Saline County Library’s millage is legal.
On Monday night, the Saline County Quorum Court passed an ordinance to place on the Nov. 3 ballot a question asking voters to decide if they want to reduce the county’s millage from 1.7 mills to 1.1. The proposal was sponsored by Justice of the Peace Josh Curtis.
Before the ordinance was approved, Adam Webb, president of the Arkansas Library Association, weighed in on the matter, saying attempts to increase or decrease county library millages fall under state Amendment 38, which requires that such proposals be initiated through citizen-led movements.
“There’s no mechanism in Arkansas code for the Quorum Court to do it,” Webb told the Arkansas Times. “I’m fairly confident in how library funding works, having more than 20 years of experience with it, and I can’t find any justification for a quorum court to initiate the question.”
In one section of the amendment titled “Raising, reducing or abolishing tax – Petition and election,” the law says the following:
“Whenever 100 or more taxpaying electors of any county having a library tax in force shall file a petition in the County Court asking that such tax be raised, reduced or abolished, the question shall be submitted to the qualified electors at a general or special election.”
In response to a request from the Arkansas Times regarding the existence of a petition, Saline County Judge Matt Brumley responded in an email saying that there was none. He also said he didn’t believe the county needed to follow Amendment 38 because another law, Amendment 55, gives the county the authority to put the measure before the public.
“The quorum court is authorized to do so under amendment 55 of the Arkansas constitution and the ACA 26-73-103, which states that ‘in addition to all other authority of the local governments to levy taxes provided by the law, any county acting through its quorum court … may levy any and all tax not otherwise prohibited by law,’” Brumley wrote.
Brumley also cited other efforts to lower library millages, that had not been initiated by the public but by an elected body, as evidence that it is legal for his Quorum Court to place the measure on the ballot.
John DiPippa, dean emeritus of the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law and a distinguished professor of law and public policy, said he was leaning toward Amendment 38 as the conduit through which county library millages had to be changed.
“The principal legal issue is whether Amendments 30 and 38 are the only ways cities and counties can deal with library taxes,” he told the Arkansas Times. “It would appear that, unless there are other statutory laws specific to giving cities and counties authority over library taxes, then Amendments 30 and 38 are the only ways they can do that.”
DiPippa said Amendment 55 spoke to a county’s authority to levy taxes but not in regard to library millages.
Amendment 30 spells out the way the millage for city libraries can be changed and is otherwise virtually identical to Amendment 38.
Several supporters showed up at Monday’s Quorum Court meeting with many of them making public statements supporting the library, its services and the current millage that pays for it all. Nevertheless, the justices of the peace voted 10-to-2 to put the measure on the ballot, meaning that if it passes, the library will lose about $1.7 million — about a third of its current budget.
Webb said he would recommend to those wanting to kill the ballot measure to challenge it in court. “…(I)f I’m right, maybe you’ll live to fight another day,” he said.
