PAUL E. DANIELSON, Associate Justice.
Appellant Southwest Power Pool, Inc. ("SPP"), appeals an order of summary judgment entered in favor of appellee Kanis and Denny Roads Suburban Water Improvement
The District was formed in 2000 for the primary purpose of constructing water lines and related improvements to serve real properties within the District. The District was financed by bond issues; in order to repay its debts and fund general operations, the District assessed the benefits accrued to each real property within the District resulting from the construction of the water lines, and levied taxes accordingly. The District completed construction of the water lines in 2006. At that time, the District conveyed and dedicated its easements and water lines to Central Arkansas Water ("CAW"), which has owned, operated, and maintained the easements and water lines since that time.
In 2010, SPP purchased 24.04 acres of unimproved real property lying within the District. SPP dedicated 3.2 acres to the City of Little Rock and constructed its commercial facility on the remaining 20.84 acres. This property had originally been part of an 80-acre tract, which was initially assessed in the amount of $138,078 in 2003. This assessment resulted in an annual levy of approximately $3,500, which was paid without protest from 2003 through 2012, and which SPP conceded was fair.
SPP appealed the 2013 reassessment to the District's board of equalization, composed of its assessor and commissioners. The reassessment was confirmed. SPP then filed its complaint in circuit court, asserting that the reassessment was wrong as a matter of law and as a matter of fact.
The District answered and filed its motion for summary judgment. The District disagreed with SPP's interpretation of section 14-92-225(c)(2), arguing that it did not exempt SPP from assessment and that it
Following further briefing and two hearings, the circuit court granted the District's motion for summary judgment on all issues except notice.
SPP's appeal challenges the circuit court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the District. The law is well settled regarding the standard of review used by this court in reviewing a grant of summary judgment. See, e.g., Anderson's Taekwondo Ctr. Camp Positive, Inc. v. Landers Auto Group No. 1, Inc., 2015 Ark. 268, 2015 WL 3814288. A circuit court will
On appeal, this court determines if summary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidentiary items presented by the moving party leave a material question of fact unanswered. See id. This court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion was filed, resolving all doubts and inferences against the moving party. See id. This review is not limited to the pleadings but also includes the affidavits and other documents filed by the parties. See id.
SPP raises four points on appeal: (1) that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the District; (2) that the District's commissioners improperly assumed the role of the assessor, which violated statutory guarantees and denied SPP due process; (3) that the amount of the reassessment and the erroneous way in which it was determined are very much in dispute and present issues for trial; and (4) that any ambiguity in section 14-92-225(c)(2) is required to be resolved in favor of the taxpayer. Our analysis begins and ends with SPP's fourth point on appeal because it raises a threshold issue and is dispositive.
SPP argues that section 14-92-225(c)(2) prohibits any assessment of its facility. Section 14-92-225(c) provides as follows:
Ark.Code Ann. § 14-92-225(c) (Repl. 1998). The parties have totally opposing views concerning the meaning of the plain language of this statute. According to SPP, the statute can only mean that its facility cannot be assessed because it is an improvement that is connected to a CAW line within the City of Little Rock, which is adjacent to the District. The District reads the statute differently, contending that subsection (c)(1) specifically requires the assessment to embrace SPP's facility and that subsection (c)(2) specifically excludes from consideration SPP's connection to a CAW line.
The question of the correct application and interpretation of an Arkansas statute is a question of law, which this court decides de novo. See, e.g., Rose v. Harbor E., Inc., 2013 Ark. 496, 430 S.W.3d 773. We are not bound by the circuit court's decision; however, in the absence of a showing that the circuit court erred, its interpretation will be accepted as correct on appeal. See id. The basic rule of statutory construction to which all other interpretive guides defer is to give effect to the intent of the drafting body. See id. In reviewing issues of statutory interpretation, we first construe a statute just as it
We find SPP's interpretation of the plain language of section 14-92-225(c) to be correct. It seems that the parties' disagreement stems from confusion over the meaning of the word "improvement" within the statute. Section 14-92-225 as a whole makes clear that the benefits to be assessed and taxed are those arising from the improvements constructed by the improvement district, not those arising from improvements constructed on the taxpayer's real property by the taxpayer. For example, subsection (a)(1) states that the assessor shall "assess the benefits which will accrue to the real property within the district from the acceptance of the gift of improvement or facilities, the purchase of the improvement or facilities, or the construction of the improvement or facilities" that the district's board of commissioners has voted to accept, purchase, or construct. Ark.Code Ann. § 14-92-225(a)(1). Subsection (a)(2) states that the assessor will assess "all benefits that will accrue to the landowners of the district by reason of the acceptance, purchase, or construction of the proposed improvement or facilities, sometimes referred to as `improvement.'" Ark.Code Ann. § 14-92-225(a)(2). Subsection (b) describes the process to be undertaken by the assessor: he or she shall determine the "Assessed Value of Lands Prior to Improvements" and the "Assessed Value of Lands After Improvements," and "[i]f the assessed value of land after improvements is greater than the assessed value of land before improvements... then the difference between the two shall be the assessed benefits that will accrue to each tract by reason of the improvement." Ark.Code Ann. § 14-92-225(b)(1) & (2)(A)(i).
Subsection (c) is somewhat different in that it uses the word "improvement" to refer to both improvements made by the improvement district and those made by the taxpayer. We read subsection (c)(1) to mean that an assessment shall take into account the land plus any improvements on the land constructed by the taxpayer — such as SPP's commercial facility — that will be benefited by the construction of improvements by the improvement district. It follows that the word "improvements" appearing in the first clause of subsection (c)(2) would refer to those improvements made on the land by the taxpayer — again, such as SPP's commercial facility. Thus, "[n]o assessment shall apply against" SPP's facility because it is "connected to the pipeline distribution system" within the City of Little Rock. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-92-225(c)(2).
The District's interpretation of subsection (c)(2), which the circuit court accepted as correct, does not comport with the plain language of the statute. If the General Assembly had intended to say that a taxpayer's connection to an adjacent city's waterworks system could not be considered in the assessment process, it presumably would have said that. The "[n]o assessment shall apply" language simply does not lend itself to that interpretation. In addition, as SPP points out, any ambiguity in the statute must be resolved in favor of it as the taxpayer. See, e.g., Cent. & S. Cos., Inc. v. Weiss, 339 Ark. 76, 3 S.W.3d 294 (1999).
Moreover, we are unpersuaded by the District's argument that section 14-92-225(c)(2) evidences the General Assembly's
For these reasons, we hold that SPP's commercial facility, an improvement on its property that is connected to the City of Little Rock's waterworks system, cannot be assessed. Accordingly, the 2013 reassessment, and the 2014 and 2015 reassessments that followed, are invalid. We reverse the circuit court's grant of summary judgment and remand for entry of an order consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.