In accordance with Ark. Code Ann. § 6-20-2305 (a)(4) as amended by Acts 965, 1186, and 1397 of 2009, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) shall recoup or distribute net revenues in excess of or less than 98% of the 25 mills uniform rate of tax (URT), respectively.
Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-2002 required the Assessment Coordination Department (ACD) to adopt and implement by rule, a statewide set of uniform instructions for reporting county property tax collection information. A standard template was designed by ACD to summarize the data contained in the final tax settlement. Each school district should verify that the template data submitted by the county agrees with school district records. Discrepancies should be reconciled so that the amount of Total Dollars Disbursed from the County (column G of the attached spreadsheet) is accurate and matches school district records. The web address of the template and individual school district and county records is http://www.arkansas.gov/acd/publications.html
If the data originally submitted in the template is incorrect, the district should ask its county officials to contact Amy Thomas at ADE (501-682-4494 or Amy.Thomas@Arkansas.gov) to submit a revised template. The deadline for submission of corrections to the template is March 31, 2010.
The attached worksheet provides data for 2008 taxes collectible in 2009. It provides a summary of the template data submitted to ACD by the preparer of the tax books for each county. The column titled Total Dollars Disbursed from the County appears on the ACD
report Equitable Foundation Funding for Arkansas Schools as $ Disbursed, with Delinquents, Post-Proration Total (highlighted at the bottom of the report page). Fringe county collections for each school district are included in the school district Total Dollars
Disbursed from the County (column G on the attached worksheet).
The Funding Adjustment (column I) is the estimated amount of URT dollars disbursed from the county (column H) subtracted from the estimated 98% of URT (column F). The school districts highlighted in green are required to reimburse ADE for URT dollars received in
excess of the 98%. Mail the reimbursement on or before June 15, 2010, to John Kunkel at the Arkansas Department of Education, Four Capitol Mall, Room 105-C, Little Rock,
Arkansas 72201.
Questions concerning the template data may be directed to Amy Thomas at Amy.Thomas@Arkansas.gov or 501-682-4494. Other questions may be directed to John Kunkel at John.Kunkel@Arkansas.gov or 501-682-4476.