Thomas W. Kimbrell

Summary

The court affirmed the injunction barring the Arkansas Department of Education from recouping or withholding uniform-rate-of-tax revenues exceeding the statutory foundation-funding amount because the governing constitutional and statutory provisions required the revenues to be returned to the districts from which they were derived. It also held that the Department improperly withheld categorical funds based on budgets containing those revenues. On cross-appeal, the court reversed and remanded the determination that the uniform-rate revenues were state-tax revenues, holding that they were a distinct school-district tax rather than a state ad valorem tax. The dissenting justices would have upheld recoupment and redistribution to prevent wealth-based disparities in school funding.