Refund checks coming soon in $18 fee case

More than 60,000 Arkansas residents are expected to receive refund checks beginning Friday, Oct. 9, after years of litigation over a controversial $18 annual assessment imposed by the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District.

Fayetteville attorney Wendy Howerton, who represented taxpayers along with attorney Matt Bishop, said Bank OZK has transferred the disputed money and accrued interest, and the opportunity for further review of the rulings has expired.

“This is the end,” Howerton said. “We are proudly and happily issuing checks, we hope, on Oct. 9 to over 60,000 residents of Arkansas.”

Taxpayers will receive $12.10 for each $18 payment covered by the distribution, Howerton confirmed. The refund includes interest, after deductions for attorney’s fees and costs associated with administering the refunds.

An amended distribution order filed Aug. 18 in Carroll County Circuit Court sets the additional interest payment at $1.60, bringing the refund to $12.10. The amendment corrected an earlier calculation that would have provided $13.40, including $2.90 in interest.

Howerton said taxpayers do not need to apply for their checks. The attorneys have researched payment records and mailing addresses, including taxpayers who owned multiple properties or have moved since paying the assessment.

A company has been hired to issue the checks, she said.

Howerton said the attorneys will attempt to locate recipients whose checks are returned because of outdated addresses. Checks that become stale can be reissued, she said. If recipients cannot be located, the undistributed money will be returned to the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District, which would then be responsible for getting it to the taxpayers, she said.

The refunds follow a legal battle that began in 2018, when Bishop and Howerton filed class-action lawsuits challenging the assessment in Carroll, Baxter, Boone, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties.

The district issued $12.34 million in bonds in 2005 to finance the purchase of the NABORS Landfill in Baxter County. In 2012, the district defaulted on the bonds and the landfill closed. The $18 annual assessment was later imposed on real estate tax bills in Carroll,  Baxter, Boone, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties under an order from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox, following a recommendation from the district’s court-appointed receiver, Geoffrey Treece. The assessment was intended to repay bondholders and reimburse the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for costs associated with closing and cleaning up the landfill.

The Carroll County lawsuit was filed May 16, 2018, on behalf of Paul Summers, as trustee of his revocable trust, and other taxpayers similarly situated.

Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson ruled April 3, 2020, that the assessment was an illegal exaction. Courts in the other five counties also ruled against the assessment.

The litigation continued over ownership of money already collected and held by Bank OZK, which served as trustee for the district’s bondholders.

In an opinion issued May 20, 2026, the Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld Jackson’s garnishment order requiring Bank OZK to surrender $433,987.10 collected from Carroll County taxpayers.

The appeals court rejected the bank’s argument that Pulaski County Circuit Court had priority jurisdiction over ownership of the money. The court found that Carroll County Circuit Court had jurisdiction to order the return of the taxpayers’ funds.

The court also rejected the bank’s argument that the money belonged to bondholders rather than taxpayers.

Although the appeals court upheld the garnishment order, it reversed Jackson’s contempt order, which had imposed a $500 daily fine. The appeals court found insufficient evidence that the bank had willfully disobeyed the garnishment order while seeking approval of a bond to preserve its appeal.

In a related opinion issued the same day, the appeals court reversed a Pulaski County injunction that had barred taxpayers from pursuing collection of the disputed money. The court also upheld a garnishment order in the Boone County case.

Jackson’s July 7 order of garnishment and updated distribution order identified an original fund of $2,339,686.59, which had grown to $2,660,982.87 with interest.

The distribution plan provides $10.50 to taxpayers for each illegally collected $18 payment, with $6 allocated to attorneys’ fees and $1.50 to administration and other specified costs. The attorneys also were awarded 33.3 percent of the accrued interest.

Howerton said completing the litigation was among the most rewarding experiences of her 22-year legal career. Although the individual assessments were relatively small, she said the case was about protecting taxpayers’ rights.

“It may not be a lot — you know, these are $18 — but there’s the principle and there’s the fact that we fought for those rights to say you matter,” Howerton said.