Opinion ID: 1678638
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Special or Local Legislation

Text: Hall claims that the trial court erred in its decision that Ark.Code Ann. § 6-17-404 (Supp.1997) was not special or local legislation. We disagree. Amendment 14 of the Arkansas Constitution contains this proscription: The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special act. Local legislation is legislation that is arbitrarily applied to only one geographic area of the state, while special legislation arbitrarily separates from the operation of an act some person, place, or thing from another. See Boyd v. Weiss, 333 Ark. 684, 971 S.W.2d 237 (1998); Fayetteville Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. Arkansas State Bd. of Educ., 313 Ark. 1, 852 S.W.2d 122 (1993). Arkansas statutes are presumed constitutional, and the party attacking a statute has the burden of showing that the challenged statute clearly violates the Arkansas Constitution. See Boyd v. Weiss, supra ; McCutchen v. Huckabee, 328 Ark. 202, 943 S.W.2d 225 (1997). The fact that a statute ultimately affects less than all of the state's territory does not per se render it local or special legislation. See McCutchen v. Huckabee, supra ; City of Little Rock v. Waters, 303 Ark. 363, 797 S.W.2d 426 (1990). We have consistently held that a statute that applies to only one area of the state is constitutional if the reason for limiting the statute to one area is rationally related to the purposes of that statute. See McCutchen v. Huckabee, supra ; Fayetteville Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. Arkansas State Bd. of Educ., 313 Ark. 1, 852 S.W.2d 122 (1993). What we review is whether the decision to apply the act to only one area of the state is rational. See McCutchen v. Huckabee, supra . The rational-basis standard presumes the rationality of the statute, which when applied to social and economic legislation can only be overcome by a clear showing of arbitrariness. See Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450, 108 S.Ct. 2481, 101 L.Ed.2d 399 (1988). We may also go beyond the legislation and take judicial notice of facts relevant to whether the act's operation and effect are local. See McCutchen v. Huckabee, supra ; Littleton v. Blanton, 281 Ark. 395, 665 S.W.2d 239 (1984). We turn then to § 6-17-404, which reads: Any person licensed as a school teacher or administrator in an adjoining state, who serves as a teacher or administrator in any public school in this state located in a county having a population of at least forty-two thousand (42,000) but not more than forty-seven thousand (47,000) according to the 1970 federal Decennial Census and having an intermix of students from Arkansas and an adjoining state, and who is compensated for services in this state by an adjoining state or school district or districts in such adjoining state, shall without further qualification be allowed to serve in such school in a capacity for which qualified in the adjoining state without affecting the rating of the school. The population parameters of § 6-17-404 indicate that the statute may well be limited to one county of the state. Nevertheless, Hall offered no proof on that point, and we will not engage in speculation or conjecture about whether other Arkansas counties are affected. Moreover, whether the application of § 6-17-404 is limited to one geographic area is largely irrelevant to our decision because we agree with the trial court that the statute is rationally related to Arkansas's interest in assisting one or more border school districts to obtain teachers from adjoining states and thereby foster better education for all students. Nor do we view the fact that a neighboring state may have different certification requirements or a dissimilar retirement plan as a reason for concluding that § 6-17-404 is arbitrary or capricious. Hall goes further and questions whether in fact § 6-17-404 assists a border school district to obtain teachers. He points to his experience with the School District and argues that Arkansas teachers are replaced by teachers not certified by this State. This at least, he urges, raises a fact question regarding the rational basis behind § 6-17-404. We disagree. Hall's burden was to show that a statute which is presumed constitutional clearly violated the Arkansas Constitution as local or special legislation. We hold that a rational basis exists for this law affecting border school districts and that Hall's allegations of improper teacher replacements do not undermine or invalidate the legitimate purposes behind the statute. On a related point, Hall argues that § 6-17-404 is unconstitutional because it allows the School District, in its sole discretion, to prescribe who it can educate and who it can use as teachers and to place a value on inkind services. According to Hall, the effect of this is an impermissible exercise of legislative authority by an administrative body to arbitrarily set school-funding requirements and place values on in-kind services. The Board of Education answers in its brief that there are guidelines in the statute which have the effect of limiting local authority: the out-of-state teacher must be licensed in an adjoining state, the public school must be located in a county with a population of at least 42,000 but no more than 47,000, and the county must have an intermix of children from Arkansas and an adjoining state. We decline to reach the issue of a wrongful exercise of legislative authority because the record and abstract do not reveal that Hall ever obtained a ruling from the trial court on this precise issue. As a result, we will not decide the question for the first time on appeal. See Jackson v. State, 334 Ark. 406, 976 S.W.2d 370 (1998); L.H. v. State, 333 Ark. 613, 973 S.W.2d 477 (1998). Hall also contends that § 6-17-404 is unconstitutionally vague, but, again, he failed to obtain a trial court ruling on this specific question, and we decline to decide the issue. See id.