HOT SPRINGS — Garland County and Fountain Lake School District officials reached a preliminary agreement this week about the county’s portion of undercharged property taxes that make up the district’s funding.
The school district that straddles the line between Garland and Saline counties rolled back its millage rate from 34.8 mills to 34.7 mills before 2011 tax bills were mailed to residents. The mistake cost the district about $35,000.
Garland County and Saline County officials have been negotiating with the school district about how to make up for their portions of the money. The deficit happened when a mistake in calculations either from the counties or from the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department triggered the rollback.
The preliminary agreement proposed Wednesday would call for the Garland County assessor’s office to pay the district about $4,000 from a partly discretionary fund and for the county to provide manpower and labor for several road projects that would improve school bus routes.
The agreement will go before the Quorum Court for approval.
Saline County’s Quorum Court voted in September to pay the district between $9,000 and $10,000. That amount was equal to what it would have cost in postage, supplies and manpower to mail out new tax bills to about 15,000 residents in the school district’s Saline County area.
Negotiations with Garland County have taken a little longer.
“If we had been at fault, we would have stepped up,” said Garland County Judge Rick Davis. “From what we’ve seen, either Saline County or the state were at fault. In terms of coming up with that money from the general fund, the cupboards are bare.”
Assessment Coordination Department officials have said in previous interviews that the service of helping districts determine whether rollbacks are necessary was a courtesy, and districts and counties are not required to have department approval of rollbacks. The department does not maintain any liability for mistakes because the final approval for those rollback decisions rests with the counties.
The department offered several classes for county clerks and others over the past few months to teach them how to calculate rollbacks because officials at the agency have decided to end the courtesy services and let counties handle the calculations alone.
Garland County Quorum Court members said they were unwilling to pay the district what it would cost to mail the tax bills because the county ultimately passes the cost of millage tax bills on to the entities that receive millage funding.
“We wouldn’t be footing that bill,” said county attorney Ralph Ohm. “Ultimately, if we should not reach an agreement, the option is to send out new bills to people.”
Ohm said those bills would range in charges from about a nickel to a few dollars and many people would likely ignore the bills or think a mistake had been made.
“That’s going to put a lot of people on the delinquency list,” he said.
School district representatives, board President Bob Mc-Cleskey and district Superintendent Darren Beckwith said they did not want the county to mail out new tax bills. Beckwith presented the option of possibly bartering county labor and services on county roads to make up for some of the money.
“I want you to know that’s something we would have done anyway,” Davis said in regard to the roads request.
The Fountain Lake district is also involved in a battle with the state Department of Education, alongside the Eureka Springs School District, over an error in determining how much millage collection should be sent back to those districts.
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 11/19/2011