Arkansas Uniform Property Tax for Schools, Amendment 1 (1996)

Arkansas Amendment 1, also known as the Establish a Uniform Minimum Property Tax Millage Rate for Maintenance and Operation of Schools Act, appeared on the November 5, 1996 election ballot in Arkansas as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment, where it was approved. It became the 74th amendment to the Arkansas Constitution, and is referred to as Arkansas Amendment 74. It requires the state government to provide 25 mills of property tax.

Election results

Uniform Property Tax for Schools
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		407,719	51.9%
No		378,017	48.1%

Updates

In 2005, fourteen Arkansas school districts filed a lawsuit against the State of Arkansas contending that they were given less money than they should have been given under the terms of Amendment 1. The schools claim that in 2006, they should have received $16 million more than they did receive, saying also that the state uses money to offset general revenue dollars that should go to education.

An hearing was held before the Arkansas Supreme Court on May 21, 2009 on the merits of the lawsuit. The state's highest court is expected to issue a final ruling in the lawsuit in several months.

The 2009 session of the Arkansas State Legislature approved a public school budget of $2.7 billion for fiscal year 2010 to cover the per-student "foundational funding" that is required by the Arkansas Supreme Court. $940 million of that $2.7 billion is supposed to come from Amendment 74 funds.

See also

• Arkansas 1996 ballot measures
• 1996 ballot measures
• List of Arkansas ballot measures
• List of ballot measures by year
• List of ballot measures by state

Suggest a link

External links

• Arkansas public school districts
• National Conference of State Legislatures Ballot Measures Database