Opinion ID: 2416855
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: local legislation

Text: The City contends that Act 31 does not represent local legislation prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution. We agree that there is nothing in the act or its application that would support the contention that Act 31 is either local or special legislation. When analyzing legislation under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution, we have distinguished between general, local, and special legislation as follows: A general law is one that operates upon all counties, cities and towns alike. A law is special in a constitutional sense when by force of an inherent limitation it arbitrarily separates some person, place or thing from those upon which, but for such separation it would operate and a local law is one that applies to any subdivision or division of the state less than the whole. Board of Trustees v. Beard, 273 Ark. 423, 620 S.W.2d 295 (1981) citing Thomas v. Foust, 245 Ark. 948, 435 S.W.2d 793 (1969). That a statute may ultimately affect less than all of the State's territory does not necessarily render it local or special, Littleton v. Blanton , 281 Ark. 395, 665 S.W.2d 239 (1984). As noted in Littleton , legislation may run afoul of the fourteenth amendment, however, when a class established by the statute has no reasonable relation to the statute's purpose or the legislation omits an area that would naturally be included. Id. As previously discussed, there is no classification established by, or inherent limitation contained in, Act 31. The exclusions outlined in Act 31 prevent duplicate taxation in those counties that have imposed both the sales and use tax envisioned by prior legislation, and we cannot say such an exclusion is arbitrary or unreasonable. According to the stipulated facts, at least three other counties have, since the effective date of Act 31, enacted only sales tax ordinances for which Act 31 now imposes a compensating use tax. Act 31 will apply to any county subsequently adopting anything other than both a sales and a use tax ordinance and cannot, therefore, be considered local legislation.