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AAC F A M I L Y & F R I E N D S


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Juror reimbursement to the county is allowed on a quarterly basis for the $50 per diem fees paid to persons selected and seated to serve as a member of a grand jury or petit jury [ACA § 16-34-106]. Circuit Court Fines.


Additional funding comes from the Court Security Grant


Program, which is administered by the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide financial assistance to counties for implementation of physical security and emergency prepared- ness plans for the courts [ACA § 16-10-1006].


*** In addition, ACA § 16-10-307 established the County


Administration of Justice Fund, which partially finances the following court agencies and programs with the county share of court costs established in ACA § 16-10-305: • Prosecuting Attorney • Prosecuting Attorney’s Victim-Witness Program • Public Defender • County Law Library Here’s the problem: According to the Special Report on


Courts released by Legislative Audit in 2015, the above- mentioned dedicated county revenues totaled $18.4 million for calendar year 2014. Expenses for the court system paid by counties in 2014 totaled $64.1 million. Tat’s a $45.7 million difference — a deficit difference. To quote from that published report, “Te deficit is primarily absorbed at the county level through the counties’ general funds.” If it were a county judicial system, it would be a county


problem. But, it’s not. It is a state judicial system — a state court system. Te state of Arkansas is divided into state judicial districts — just like it is divided into state school districts. My good friend Mike Rainwater said soon following the Lake


View School Dist. No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002) case that much of that case was applicable to county government as a subdivision of the state. Rainwater said, “While the state can delegate to counties the duty to discharge the state’s administra- tion of justice duties, the state is nevertheless ultimately respon- sible for the discharge of those duties...” Te Arkansas Supreme Court in its Lake View ruling said, quoting its prior ruling in DuPree v. Alma School Dist. No. 30 of Crawford County, 279 Ark. 340, 651 S.W.2d 90 (1983), “If local government fails, the state government must compel it to act, and if the local govern- ment cannot carry the burden, the state must itself meet its continuing obligation.”


Rainwater also said, “Te same is true when the funding scheme adopted by the state results in a denial of substantial equality among all the citizens of the state with respect to the discharge of the state’s duty to provide certain services that are an essential element of due process” — the state court system. In both the Lake View v. Huckabee and DuPree v. Alma School District court cases the Supreme Court said, “Equal opportunity


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is the touchstone for a constitutional system.” ***


Te state has declared that certain essential governmental ser- vices must be provided to the citizens of Arkansas by the state’s 75 counties. ACA § 14-14-802(a) establishes a priority of required county spending. Te “administration of justice” through the court system is at the top of the list [a state court system], fol- lowed by “law enforcement protection services and the custody of persons accused or convicted of crimes” — that includes state prisoners backed up in county jails. Te rest of the mandated list of expenditures deals primarily with the operation of the county constitutional offices and “court records management.” Of course, a county may provide many other services and functions, and many of them are expected by a county’s constit- uency. ACA § 14-14-802(b) provides the authority for a county government to establish the provision of a litany of governmen- tal services and functions that is a list that dwarfs the mandated services. However, counties find little money to expend in these important areas due to the huge burden of subsidizing the state court system, housing state inmates at a reimbursement rate about $15 per day per prisoner below the actual cost to house the inmates, and other state mandates. Te vast majority of counties cannot adequately compensate their county officials and employees because they must expend too many of their general fund dollars on state mandates. Te state of Arkansas through the General Assembly has pro- vided avenues for counties to levy and collect revenues for both the state-mandated expenditures and for the costs associated with the local county function of legislative and administrative authority relating to county affairs. We have already addressed the various revenues for the court system and found them to be sorely lacking to cover the costs. Counties also have the authority to levy a maximum of 5 mills as a property tax on all personal and real property in the county for general operations [Arkansas Constitution, Article 16, § 9 and ACA § 26-25-101]. Many counties are either at the maximum or near the maximum. Most of those that aren’t have made a deal with the electorate that if they would approve a sales tax or sales taxes, the county would not increase property taxes. Te 5-mill general tax maximum has been in place since the 1874 Arkansas Constitution. In 1981 the state of Arkansas provided statutory authority for counties to enact sales and use taxes with an affirmative vote of the county’s electorate. Tat authority has been expanded sub- stantially over the years. All but two counties have a county sales tax, and many have multiple sales taxes. Without the sales tax most counties would have already “gone down for the third time.” Just as food for thought, think about this: Municipalities are


currently provided an appropriation of $29,372,099 in general revenue turnback. Te general revenue turnback appropriation for counties is $21,428,616 — but counties have more than $5


COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2016


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