By Katelyn Aluise, The Herald Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The local library and park district responded officially Wednesday to the Cabell County Board of Education’s appeal of a judge’s decision in favor of the entities maintaining excess levy funding under the Special Acts of the Legislature.
The Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District said the Kanawha County case the Cabell County Board of Education is using as precedent as to why the Special Acts of the Legislature violate Equal Protection guarantees does not apply for multiple reasons.
The Cabell County Board of Education has until Jan. 24 to file a reply.
The basis of the Cabell County Board of Education’s appeal of Circuit Court Judge Gregory Howard’s decision was a similar case involving the Kanawha County Board of Education funding libraries through its levies. According to the appeal, the Supreme Court of Appeals ultimately decided the Kanawha school board was being treated unfairly because the special acts were not present in all 55 counties, and the Kanawha Special Acts violated Equal Protection guarantees in the state’s constitution.
The parks and libraries argued in their response the Special Acts for Cabell County are not unconstitutional because equal protection principles do not cover excess levies, according to findings from a similar case involving Upshur County in 1988.