   
Court upholds law on road funds in three NW Ark. cities
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 LITTLE ROCK (AP) Benton County failed to prove that the state constitution was violated by a 1963 law ordering most of the road funds collected within Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs to go toward those three cities, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Justices upheld a lower court's ruling that the county failed to show that the 1963 law directing the county collector to apportion to the three cities 90 percent of the road funds collected within their corporate limits was unconstitutional.
Benton County appealed the ruling and argued that the legislation violated Amendment 14's ban on the Legislature passing any "special or local" acts.
In a 6-1 ruling, the court said that the county failed to show that the law was not related to achieving a legitimate purpose of state government. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Jim Hannah said that the county also failed to show how the three cities were treated differently from other cities in the state.
"We must presume Act 219 of 1963 is constitutional, or in other words, that it was related to a legitimate governmental interest when enacted," Hannah wrote.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Robert L. Brown wrote that he agreed that the county failed to prove there was no legitimate basis for the 1963 law but said "whether Act 219 violated Amendment 14 in 1963 remains an open question."
Justice Donald L. Corbin, in the only dissenting opinion, wrote that the 1963 law clearly gives special treatment to three cities and violates the ban on local legislation.
"Quite simply, I cannot think of any reason rationally related to the purpose of Act 219, or any other legitimate purpose for that matter, for specifically singling out these three cities for extra apportionment of revenue," Corbin wrote. "Act 219 of 1963 arbitrarily singles out Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs for special treatment, and this is a clear violation of Amendment 14."
In 2006, the court ruled that lawmakers violated Amendment 14's ban on strictly local legislation when they appropriated $400,000 in 2005 for street improvements in Bigelow. The following year, they tossed out $410,000 worth of appropriations made by lawmakers in 2005 for projects including two libraries and a military museum.
During last year's legislative session, lawmakers responded to the 2006 ruling by changing the way they funded local projects, directing most General Improvement Fund money to state agencies rather than local projects, leaving it to the state agencies to distribute the money.
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