Validation of Tax Anticipation Note, Series 2014 v. Humphreys County Board of Supervisors

187 So. 3d 1025, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 138, 2016 WL 1255869
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 2016
Docket2015-CA-00100-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 187 So. 3d 1025 (Validation of Tax Anticipation Note, Series 2014 v. Humphreys County Board of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Validation of Tax Anticipation Note, Series 2014 v. Humphreys County Board of Supervisors, 187 So. 3d 1025, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 138, 2016 WL 1255869 (Mich. 2016).

Opinions

KITCHENS, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. When the Humphreys County Board of Supervisors notified the public of its intention to issue a $1.2 million tax anticipation note, taxpayers filed a petition containing signatures of qualified electors requesting that the matter be submitted to the public for an election. The Board determined that the number of qualified electors who had signed the petition was insufficient to require an election. The Board, therefore, authorized the note’s issuance. The matter then was submitted to the Humphreys County Chancery Court for validation. The day before the hearing, Glenn Russell filed a written objection. At the hearing, Russell appeared pro se to oppose validation. Nevertheless, the chancellor entered a judgment validating the tax anticipation note. Aggrieved, Russell appealed. For. the reasons stated below, we reverse and.remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On September 2, 2014, the Board of Supervisors of Humphreys County, Mississippi (the Board), adopted a resolution declaring its intention to issue a tax anticipation note in the amount of $1.2 million “to raise money for the purpose of defraying the expenses of said County in anticipation of ad valorem taxes.” Pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 19-9-27 (Rev.2012),1 [1028]*1028the Board declared its intention to borrow from the “ad valorem tax receipts of the County for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015,” which it “expected to be Six Million One Hundred Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars ($6,175,000) for the General Fund.” In accordance with the statute, the resolution provided that the Board was to meet for the purpose of directing the issuance of the $1.2 million note “at 10:00 o’clock a.m. on October 6, 2014.” The resolution provided the following:

If twenty percent (20%), or fifteen hundred (1,500), whichever is less, of the qualified electors of the County shall file with the Clerk of the Board a written protest petition against the issuance of the Notes on or before the aforesaid date and hour, then the Notes shall not be issued unless authorized at an election on the question of the issuance of the Notes to be called and held as provided by law.

The resolution directed that notice “shall be published once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks in The Belzoni Banner, a newspaper published in and having a general circulation in the County — ” The Board effected publication of its notice on September 10, 2014; September 17, 2014; and September 24, 2014, respectively-

¶3. In response to the publication of September 10, 2014, an “Urgent Notice To Concerned Voters of Humphreys County” circulated “to help stop future tax increases.” This “Urgent Notice” indicated that a prior issue of The Belzoni Banner, published on August 13, 2014, had likewise provided notice to the County of the Board’s intention to borrow $1.2 million pursuant to Section 19-9-27. However, in the prior issue of The Belzoni Banner, the County had reported that the estimated ad valorem tax revenue for the preceding year had been only $3,482,000. The notice dated September 10, 2014, and subsequent notices published by the County in The Belzoni Banner, declared that the preceding annual tax levies had been $6,175,000. According to the “Urgent Notice,” when the Board “figured out that 25% of $3,482,000 was only $870,500, they pulled the ad.” The “Urgent Notice” urged recipients to “stop the insane behavior” of the Board by signing a petition because “if 1500 or 20% of the electors, whichever is less, of the county petition against the borrowing of funds, the Board of Supervisors would have to let the people vote on it.”

¶ 4. A petition protesting the tax anticipation note was filed on October 6, 2014. That same day, the Board recessed the October 6, 2014, meeting until October 13, 2014. On October 13, 2014, the Board considered the petition and granted a continuance pending the Circuit Clerk’s completion of the petition’s verification. On October 16, 2014, the Board accepted the Circuit Clerk’s certification to the effect that “1579 qualified electors of Humphreys County” had signed the petition. Two-hundred and nineteen electors had “signed a statement withdrawing their name from the Petition.” The Circuit Clerk therefore certified that 1,360 names remained.

¶ 5. On October 16, 2014, the Board issued a resolution authorizing and direct[1029]*1029ing the issuance of the tax anticipation note in the amount of $1.2 million. The Board determined that “[t]here are Seven Thousand and Seventeen (7,017) qualified electors of, the County and twenty percent (20%) of Seven Thousand and Seventeen (7,017) is One Thousand Four Hundred and Three (1,403).” The Board found that “[t]he smaller of twenty percent (20%) of the qualified electors (which is 1,403) and One Thousand Five Hundred (1,500) is One Thousand Four Hundred and Three (1,403).” The Board found that 219 signatures had been removed and that “the remaining number of• petitioning qualified electors is One Thousand Three Hundred Sixty (1,360).” Therefore, the Board found that the number of signatures of qualified electors was “insufficient to require an election on the question of the issuance of the proposed bonds.... ” Pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 31-13-5 (Rev.2010),2 the Board directed its clerk “to make up a transcript of all legal papers and proceedings relating to the Note and to certify, and.forward the same to the State Bond Attorney for the- institution of validation proceedings.”

¶ 6. State Bond Attorney Spence Flat-gard, having examined the. papers submitted by the Board, stated in his written opinion dated November 14, 2014, that: “Based upon my review of the legal papers provided to .me, I have reached the opinion that the above described obligation is regular, legal and valid as to form, principal amount, denomination, interest rate, maturities, and otherwise, and the Note does not exceed any limitations imposed by law.”

[1030]*1030¶ 7. The tax anticipation note validation hearing occurred in the chancery court on December 16, 2014. Glenn Russell appeared, pro se, to object to validation, having filed a written objection on December 15, 2014. The Board first presented Flat-gard, who testified that “all the procedures have been followed strictly according to the statute” and that “this note is [a] ... valid obligation of the' County.” The Board next called Thomas L. Goodwin, a part-time county administrator responsible for overseeing county finances, formulating'á budget, and setting the tax levy. He testified that he was “afraid that the people that work for the County will have to take furlough if we do not receive this money.” He also said that there are “a lot of services that are given that are monthly paid expenses,” including ambulance services and garbage collecting. He testified that, without the money, “[i]f we don’t have to shut down, there’ll be severe cutbacks.”

¶ 8. Russell called to the witness stand Cleotra Tanner, who testified that it. was her personal opinion as a citizen of Hum-phreys County that the Board' had not utilized the correct numbers in arriving at the amount of its requested $1.2 million tax anticipation note. Earl Lee Stephens then testified that it was his opinion that withdrawing the bond would be in the best interest of the county.

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Bluebook (online)
187 So. 3d 1025, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 138, 2016 WL 1255869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/validation-of-tax-anticipation-note-series-2014-v-humphreys-county-board-miss-2016.