Trash fee causes furor

When some property tax statements went out two weeks ago they included an insert, the “Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District Fee.” The notice explained that a court ruling last April will require Carroll County residents to pay $18 per year on top of their other property taxes. This assessment would pay bondholders who financed the purchase of a landfill to serve a six-county area, Carroll, Boone, Baxter, Marion, Newton and Searcy.

The Nabors landfill in rural Baxter County was closed in 2012, and the OMSWD declared bankruptcy on the property. Bondholders sued, and a Circuit judge in Pulaski County ruled that members of the district must pay off the debt owed on the landfill. No official date is set for expiration of this assessment, although estimates range from 18 to 30 years.

The assessment affects every business or residential property in the county, and applies to agricultural land with developed buildings, such as poultry houses.

The notice explains that the local assessor and collector have nothing to do with this tax, but many taxpayers apparently did not read that far into the notice. Assessor Jeannie Davidson and Tax Collector Kay Phillips-Brown have both seen their share of angry people, some of whom blame clerks at the office windows.

Davidson said the $18 fee has heated up the phone lines, and many have come to the office in person. “Most people calm down once we explain the situation,” she said, “but some have been really upset by this.” In addition to the time spent with irate callers, Davidson said the judge’s ruling required a lot of extra work for her and her staff. “We had to go through 12,000 parcels by hand, to see which met the requirements,” she said.

Phillips-Brown said she and her staff have tried to weather the storm. “We try to stay calm and explain,” she said, “and most people eventually understand that this has nothing to do with anyone in Carroll County.”

The other half of property tax statements were mailed out March 9. The assessors’ and collectors’ offices prepared for another round of complaints.

Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney has served on the OMSWD since its inception. In an interview last week, he explained some of the history, which he has documented thoroughly.  He opposed the $12.5 million purchase of the landfill in 2005, and pointed out that a bond company had turned down a $9.5 million loan the previous year. “They said the landfill would never generate enough revenue to pay for a bond, even at that lower price,” McKinney said, but his vote ended up in the minority. “They spent too much money to buy something they didn’t really need, and then mismanaged it,” he said.

When major problems developed at the landfill within the next five years, McKinney again found himself in the minority. The record shows that he argued to repair the site rather than enter bankruptcy, but others thought bankruptcy provided the best solution.

The reaction across the district has provoked a promise of public meetings in the coming weeks. Those meetings will give people the opportunity to vent to the attorneys for the receiver, but not to the judge or to the district members who voted for bankruptcy.