The Texas County Commission and 17 townships are accused of violating state law related to the appropriation of tax money for roads and bridges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Texas County Commissioners Fred Stenger, John Casey and Linda Garrett and each of the county’s 17 townships are accused of illegally distributing and spending state funds through the County Aid Road Trust (CART).
The lawsuit filed by Clarence W. “Rocky” Dailing of Huggins and Thomas W. Dalaviras of Summersville accuses the officials of illegally distributing tax money that they say should be spent on the county level and not by townships.
The Texas County Commission gives the funds to each of the townships based on the number of miles maintained. In fiscal year 2013, the county is estimated to receive about $890,000, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation. Those monies represent gas taxes, motor vehicle sales/use tax revenues and motor vehicle fees.
Dailing and Dalaviras say a provision of state statute requires the county to expend the funds not the townships: “In counties having the township form of county organization, the funds credited to such counties shall be expended solely under the control and supervision of the county court (commission), and shall not be expended by the various townships located within such counties.”
In 2010, Dalaviras, representing himself, sued the county commission alleging it was violating the law, but a judge appointed to hear the case ruled that the petition included a blank contract form and didn’t show evidence the presiding commissioner or a township president had ever executed it.
In Texas County, the 17 townships function for the purpose of road and bridge maintenance. They collect administrative and road and bridge taxes. Over the years, two offices — assessor and tax collector — have been eliminated by the Missouri General Assembly and operate from the Texas County Administrative Center.
Dailing has been involved in a running battle with Upton Township officials and the commissioners related to the construction of a new $22,000 bridge there that was later destroyed after MoDOT imposed a weight limit and a culvert structure that replaced it.