Court Opinion

ID: 9648213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:09:56.794513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:57.490198
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, concurring. I concur with the majority opinion that the original action petition should be denied and that this measure should stay on the ballot. There is no question that once a referendum petition is filed on a particular legislative act with an Emergency Clause (in this case Act 7 of 1992) that measure shall be law until the vote of the people occurs. Ark. Const, amend. 7. Amendments to that measure after the petition is filed (in this case Act 1073 of 1993 and Act 27 of 1994), however, do not affect the referendum on the measure in question. Petitioner Walker argues, hypothetically, that if a subsequent amendment goes to the lengths of repealing the act in question, that information should be given to the voting public in the ballot title. But surely under such circumstances, the issue would be moot and the proponents of the referendum would have no basis on which to proceed with it. I agree that there is no requirement that Citizens Against Unfair Taxes begin the referendum process all over again, which would entail a renewed effort to gather signatures, simply because the General Assembly saw fit to amend Act 7 by Act 1073 of 1993 and Act 27 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 1994 after the referendum petition on Act 7 was filed. Indeed, had intervenor Citizens filed a new or even amended petition embracing those later Acts, it could well have run afoul of the mandate in Amendment 7 that the petition be filed within 90 days of the end of the session where the measure at issue was passed. A more troublesome question is raised by Act 3 of the Second Extraordinary Session of 1992, which did become effective before Citizens’ referendum petition was filed. Act 3 authorized the State Treasurer to transfer a certain amount of “New Revenue” from general revenues to the Grant Fund Account of the Department of Human Services Fund to supplement funds available for the Medicaid program, ending June 30, 1993. Act 3 became effective December 18, 1992. Act 7, the Soft Drink Tax, became effective on March 1, 1993, by virtue of an Emergency Clause. The referendum petition on Act 7 was filed on March 2, 1993. Petitioner Walker contends that the “New Revenue” under Act 3 includes several new revenue sources as well as the Soft Drink Tax. According to Walker, the ballot title is misleading in stating that the tax revenue goes into general revenues and not into the Department of Human Services Fund for Medicaid. Several things are wrong with Walker’s Act 3 argument. Were we to adopt this theory, it would require Citizens to hold a referendum on both Act 3 and Act 7, or at least part of Act 3, and the scope of Act 3 goes far beyond the Soft Drink Tax. For another, it is not altogether clear to what extent Act 3 would include Soft Drink Tax revenues. The Act mandates the State Treasurer to transfer $34,300,000 to the Department of Human Services Fund, but, as already mentioned, several revenue sources qualified as “New Revenue.” Indeed, all revenue derived from acts of the Second Extraordinary Session of the Seventy-Eighth General Assembly qualified. Also, Act 3 was operational until June 30, 1993, which means that it was effective for merely four months after Act 7 became effective on March 1, 1993. Finally, Act 3 does not change the fact that Soft Drink Tax revenues do go into general revenues, at least initially, as the ballot title reflects. At this late hour, it is admittedly difficult to fathom fully the interplay between Act 3 and Act 7 based on what we have before us. Nonetheless, Amendment 7 reserves to the people the power to reject legislation by the referendum process. Intervenor Citizens is attempting to ask for a referendum on one particular act — Act 7 — and its specific terms. This it had a right to do. The fact that Act 3 may have affected the ultimate destination of Act 7 revenues for four months, although this is not altogether clear from the legislation itself, and the fact that acts after the petition was filed change Act 7 in certain respects, should not disparage the right of the intervenor to petition for the referendum on the one act as it did. The referendum right is one of the most important reserved to the people. We have said before that this right should be liberally construed and “not be thwarted by strict or technical construction.” Cochran v. Black, 240 Ark. 393, 398, 400 S.W.2d 280, 283 (1966); see also Reeves v. Smith, 190 Ark. 213, 78 S.W.2d 72 (1935). In sum, the referendum is on Act 7. The ballot title describes Act 7 accurately. The issue should now go to the people for determination.