Cite as 351 Ark. 31 (2002)
in accordance with her opinion. In 1995, the chancery judge denied Lake View counsel attorneys' fees. On March 11, 1996, this court dismissed an appeal by the State contesting the 1994 order based on the fact that the order was not final, since the two-year stay was still in effect. See Tucker v. Lake View School Dist. No. 25, 323 Ark. 693, 917 S.W.2d 530 (1996) (Lake View I). In Lake View I, we expressly referred to the fact that Lake View's rights in the matter had not been concluded and that further hearings before the trial court were necessary before the trial court's order could be placed into execution. At the expiration of the two-year stay near the end of calendar year 1996, neither Lake View nor the State appealed from the trial court's 1994 order.
During its General Session in 1995, the Arkansas General Assembly enacted several acts for the purpose of establishing a new school-funding system. Specifically, Acts 916 and 917 were enacted, as well as Act 1194, which appropriated over $1.3 billion in school funding for the first year of the next biennium and more than $1.4 billion for the second year of the biennium.[1]
On August 22, 1996, following Lake View's third and fourth amended complaints, the trial court certified the Lake View class, as requested by Lake View, which included all school districts in the state, students and parents of students in all school districts, school board members of all school districts, and school district taxpayers who support the system. On November 5, 1996, the people of Arkansas approved by majority vote Amendment 74 to the Arkansas Constitution which fixed a uniform rate of 25 mills for each school district as the ad valorem property tax rate for the maintenance and operation of the public schools and permitted increases in the uniform millage rate as "variances" to enhance public education.
At its next General Session, the General Assembly enacted new legislation providing for public school financing, including Act 1307 of 1997, codified in part at Ark. Code Ann. §§ 6-20-302 et seq. (Repl. 1999). Act 1307 repealed portions of Act 917 of
- ↑ This court subsequently held that Act 916 of 1995 was unconstitutionally adopted due to an alteration of the bill, which ran counter to its original purpose as stated in the bill's title. See Barclay v. Melton, 339 Ark. 362, 5 S.W.3d 457 (1999).
