By James Jefferson
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Three Arkansas taxpayers filed a lawsuit today claiming state officials’ private use of state-issued vehicles without reimbursement constitutes an illegal exaction.

The suit, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, asks a judge to enjoin state officials and employees from further personal use of state-owned vehicles without paying “adequate and reasonable reimbursement or compensation” to the state.

It also seeks unspecified reimbursements to the state and class-action status.

“Arkansas law requires any elected official or state employees to reimburse the state for any personal use of state vehicles, and that is not being done,” said Little Rock attorney Christopher Brockett, who filed the lawsuit with his law partner, Eugene Sayre.

“We are suing on behalf of all Arkansas taxpayers who are suffering in these financial times. For some reason our state has determined that certain employees and elected officials should receive a free vehicle … at the expense of our taxpayers,” Brockett said. “We’re going to seek the fullest extent we can get to return to state coffers. These are monies that taxpayers are having to replenish to the state treasury that should not have been spent. It’s a burden to taxpayers.”

The plaintiffs are L.T. Campbell of Fort Smith, N.L. Cobb of Pottsville in Pope County and P.A. Gould of North Little Rock.

The lawsuit names as defendants state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, state Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss, the directors of the state Education and Higher Education departments and all other state officials, along with past and current state employees, authorized to use a state-owned vehicle for personal purposes.

The suit comes just days after Doyle Webb, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, threatened legal action this week if the state’s constitutional officers — all Democrats — did not commit to repay the state for personal use of their state vehicles.

Shoffner is the only constitutional officer who has insisted that she does not have to reimburse the state for her personal use of a state vehicle.

Brockett said Friday the issues involved in the controversy over constitutional officers’ use of state vehicles are different from those in his lawsuit and that the only connection to the state GOP threat was his decision to file a lawsuit first to avoid having the matter muddled in politics.

“The most important thing is, illegal exaction lawsuits should never be politically motivated, only brought for the benefit of the citizen taxpayers of Arkansas. That’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter has reported his personal use of a state vehicle as income for tax purposes since taking office in 2007, but up until this week he was the only state constitutional officer to do so.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said last week that past attorney general’s opinions and advice from his accountant led to him to believe personal use of a state vehicle was not considered extra income, but he said he would give up his state vehicle.

On Monday, McDaniel said he would reimburse the state $2,093 for past use. The attorney general said Friday he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment further.

Gov. Mike Beebe is transported in a state police vehicle as the state’s chief executive but drove a state-issued vehicle during four years as attorney general. He has said he kept track of personal miles and treated the use as taxable income.

“My position has been real clear from the get-go: I thought you ought to pay taxes on it, and I did it when nobody was looking,” Beebe said Friday. “I did it when I had the car as attorney general, and nobody even knew about it till all this came up, what, four or five years later. I think that’s what you ought to do, you ought to pay taxes on it. I think that’s the law.”

Weiss said 414 people in state agencies, including him as DF&A director, pay taxes on their use of state-owned vehicles to commute to and from work.

A University of Arkansas System spokesman said UA President B. Alan Sugg keeps track of his personal mileage on his state vehicle and pays state and federal taxes on it monthly.

Shoffner did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.