Agreement reached for collection of $18 fee for NABORS debt

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After a five-month deadlock, a path has been cleared to collect funding across the six-county Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District to pay the debt incurred in purchasing the NABORS waste hauling operation and the local landfill.Local officials had been saddled with interpreting and carrying out a Pulaski County Circuit Court ruling rendered last April by Judge Tim Fox. The judge’s decision approved the recommendation of a receiver appointed by his court to find a way to pay the NABORS debt. In addition to Baxter County, the ruling impacts five other counties in North Central Arkansas. Marion, Searcy, Boone, Newton and Carroll counties are also included in the ruling.

The ruling had set the stage for an $18 annual assessment against each residence and business parcel in Baxter County, a task assessors in the six counties had maintained could not be accomplished by the end of the year, as ordered by the court. In addition, the assessors had maintained the ruling was not fair or equitable, not taking into account such factors as the size of businesses or those operating without a store front from their home who would be double assessed.

Until this week, there had been only limited contact between the receiver and local officials, with the exception of one meeting in late August. In that meeting, it was clear to the assessors and collectors the receiver had not considered the challenges in carrying out his recommendation to the court. The meeting ended in an impasse.

Baxter County Assessor Jayme Nicholson taking the lead and working with her fellow assessors searched for a more equitable means for carrying out the court ruling. This week, the receiver concurred her recommendation on behalf of the assessors would generate a sufficient amount of revenue.

Nicholson says while the assessors did not agree with the court ruling, they were charged with carrying it out and decided a more equitable plan was to place the fee on real estate.


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Nicholson says the only exceptions to the $18 fee will be vacant land and exempt properties such as churches.

With the agreement, the six assessors will be able to forward tax bills for 2017 to their respective collectors to meet the court ordered deadline.

Nicholson says how the $18 fee will appear on next year’s tax statements is in the hands of the collectors.  She uses her tax statement as an example of the direction the collectors might choose to take.


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The efforts to carry out the judge’s April order is the latest in a saga that began when the Northwest Arkansas Regional Solid Waste District defaulted on the payment of principal and interest to the bondholders in November 2012 and stopped trash collections. After the district defaulted on its debt, Bank of the Ozarks–as trustee of the bondholders–sued the district in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

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