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AN ORDINANCE REQUIRING THE REGISTRATION OF, AND PROVIDING FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE TAX: REPEALING PRIOR ORDINANCES: DECLARING AN EMERGENCY: AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES (NOTE: THIS ORDINANCE WAS AMENDED BY ORD-74:2373 ON OCTOBER 22, 1974)
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SECTION 1: DEFINITIONS. The term motor vehicle as used in this Ordinance shall be construed to mean and include any automobile, automotive truck, track-tractor, motorcycle, and all other vehicles propelled otherwise than by muscular power, except and excluding motor bicycles, traction engines and road rollers, bicycles, and other motor vehicles running only upon rails or tracks.
The term owner shall be deemed to be the person who holds the legal title of a vehicle or the person who has an immediate right of possession in the event of a conditional sales contract or mortgage.
SECTION 2: APPLICATION AND REGISTRATION. Every natural person, firm, co-partnership, association, or corporation, owning or operating a motor vehicle in the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, specifically including herein all such persons, firm, co-partnership, association, or corporation maintaining an established place of business in said city and operating any vehicle out of such place of business, shall before they operate said vehicles on the street of the City of Jonesboro, file in the office of the City Collector of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, an application setting forth the name and address of the owner, and in the event of a firm or partnership the name and style of the business together with the names and addresses of the partners, and in the event of a corporation its name together with the principal officers and their addresses, also a brief description of the vehicle to be registered, including the name of the make, factory motor number, style of the vehicle, the serial number, the Arkansas State license number issued for the current year and the purpose for which it will be used, upon a black to be furnished by such City Collector.
SECTION 3: PAYMENT OF TAX. Each such applicant making application as hereinabove set out in Section 2 shall accompany his application with the amount of the tax herein levied, which shall be in the sum of five and No/100 Dollars ($5.00) for each motor vehicle.
SECTION 4: ISSUE OF IDENTIFICATION NUMBER AND DISPLAY OF SAME. Upon the filing of said application and payment of tax in the office of the City Collector, it shall be his duty without further fee to issue to the owner of such motor vehicles as described in the application as filed, one metal license plate, or transparent windshield sticker, bearing the number assigned to such motor vehicle, together with the work “Jonesboro” and such other words as from time to time deemed appropriate.
SECTION 5: It shall be unlawful to transfer the metal plate, or sticker, form one motor vehicle for which it was purchased to any other motor vehicle. Provided, however that upon the transfer of ownership of any vehicle, it shall be the duty of the transferee (purchaser) to register the transfer with the City Collector, who shall be paid as a re-numeration for this service for making the transfer, the sum of Fifty Cents (.50¢). It shall be unlawful for anyone to transfer a license form one motor vehicle to another and it shall be unlawful for anyone to transfer use a plate or sticker which may have been lost or stolen. In the event of the loss, theft, or destruction of a plate, or sticker, the owner of the vehicle licensed shall upon certifying to the recorder that said plate, or sticker, has been lost, stolen or destroyed, for which said owner shall paid the City Collector a fee of One and No/100 Dollars ($1.00). The new plate, or sticker, so issued shall expire at the same date as the original plate or sticker.
SECTION 6: Dealer’s registration and tag. Every person, firm co-partnership, association, or corporation engaged in the business of buying, selling, distributing or exchanging new or used motor vehicles and having an established place of business in the City of Jonesboro shall, in lieu of registering each such vehicle, make application as provided for by Section 2 herein and obtain from City Collector, upon payment of the fees required herein, and attach to each such vehicle one numbered plate which plate shall bear hereon a distinctive number, also the work “Jonesboro”, and the year for which issued, together with the word “Dealer” or some other distinguishing symbol or series of numbers indicating that such plate of plates as issued may during the calendar year form which issued be transferred from one such vehicle to another owned and operated by such dealer for the purpose of furthering the business interest of the dealer in the sale of demonstration of such motor vehicle. It shall be unlawful for the dealer or any other person to display upon any motor vehicle a tag or license plate issued as a dealers’ tag or plate after the same shall be sold or while the same is being used for pleasure or other business purposes than sale or demonstration.
Every dealer shall accompany each application with the amount of the tax herein levied, which shall be the sum of Five and No. /100 Dollars ($5.00) for the first and second such applications and provided, however, that any dealer may secure a third and any additional license plates upon application and payment of a fee of Two and No/100 Dollars ($2.00) each.
SECTION 7: The City Collector of the City of Jonesboro shall cause the name of the owner, together with the date of filing of the application and description of such motor vehicle, to be entered both in alphabetical and numerical order in a book to be kept in the office as a permanent record. The Collector shall keep said record posted as to transfers that may have been registered with them. The City Collector shall keep said record posted as to transfers that may have been registered with him. The City Collector shall furnish a copy of the application and description of such motor vehicle to the Chief of Police of the City of Jonesboro.
SECTION 8: Dates of payment and penalties for late payment. Said license tax shall be payable annually from the 1st day of January until the 16th day of February of each year hereafter without penalty. Each such license shall expire on the 31st day of December following its issuance.
Any person, firm, co-partnership, association or corporation required hereunder to make application to pay the tax herein provided for before February 16, of each year, and who files said application and pays the tax herein provided after February 15 of any year shall be required to pay a penalty of One and No./100 Dollars ($1.00) if said application and payment made before March 1 of any year; if paid after March 1 a penalty of Two and No/100 Dollars ($2.00) shall be paid; if paid after April 1 a penalty of Three and No/100 Dollars ($3.00) shall be paid; if paid after May 1 a penalty of Four and No./100 Dollars ($4.00) shall be required and paid; if paid after June 1 a penalty of Five and No/100 Dollars ($5.00) shall be paid. Provided, however, that any person putting any vehicle into service after February 16th of any year shall be permitted to purchase such license plate, make application and pay the tax herein provided, at anytime within 30 days after said vehicle is put into service without paying a penalty; therefore, the penalty of One and No/100 Dollars ($1.00) shall be charged for each month that the licensee delays in filing application and paying said tax.
SECTION 9: No extension of time. Times hereinabove provided for paying of tax and filing of application herein shall not be extended; and any effort to extend the time past February 16, of any year shall be null, void and of no effect, unless such extension of time is set forth and granted in a duly adopted and published ordinance of the City Council of the City of Jonesboro.
SECTION 10: Half year license. Any person, firm, co-partnership, association or corporation putting any motor vehicle into service and operation after August 1 of any year, upon filing proper application, shall be required to pay one-half of the annual license tax for the remainder of this calendar year; provided, however, that such application if filed and the tax paid within 30 days after such vehicle is put into operation, and if not paid within such 30 days period, a penalty of One and No/100 Dollars ($1.00) shall be charged for each month of delay after said vehicle is put into operation.
SECTION 11: It shall be the duty of said City Collector upon issuing a receipt for the tax collected hereunder, to keep a stub or carbon copy of each receipt issued by him under the provision of it ordinance and to post same to a ledger to be kept by him for this purpose. It shall be the duty of said City Collector to make a written monthly report to the City Council showing the number of licenses issued and the amounts collected.
SECTION 12: PENALTIES: That any person, firm, co-partnership, association or corporation owning or operating any motor vehicle without paying the tax herein levied, or in any otherwise violating the provisions of this ordinance, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not less than Five and No/100 Dollars ($5.00) nor more than Twenty Five and No. /100 Dollars ($25.00) and each day of violation shall constitute a separate offense.
SECTION 13: APPLICATION OF FUNDS: The revenues derived form the collection of said tax, after deduction of all costs and expense, shall be placed and kept in a separate fund and shall be used exclusively in the construction, repair, and maintenance of the streets alleys, bridges and other public highways of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas.
SECTION 14: SEPARABILITY. If any section, paragraph, subdivision, sentence, clause or phrase hereof shall be adjudged invalid or held unconstitutional, the same shall not affect the validity of the ordinance as a whole or any part or provision thereof, other than the parts so decided to be invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 15: REPEALING CLAUSE: Carroll’s Digest of the laws and ordinances of the City of Jonesboro (1934) Sections 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 and ordinances No.572 and 718 are hereby specifically repealed in so far as they apply to vehicle licensing and tax together with any other ordinances of the City of Jonesboro in so far as they may be in conflict herewith in regard to vehicle tax and licensing. Provided, however, that nothing herein shall be construed as intending to repeal or amend any other license or tax imposed upon any person, firm, partnership, or corporation for the privilege of carrying on a business or occupation, and it being the expressed intention that the tax herein provided shall be in addition to any other license of tax required by any other ordinances of the City of Jonesboro.
SECTION 16: EMERGENCY: It being found by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro that there is now exists some confusion and conflict among the many ordinances of said City in regard to vehicle license tax and that there is need of a new ordinance to clarify such vehicle license tax, and that the date for filing said application and payment of tax should be extended in order to allow the licensee an opportunity to purchase his state license before applying for city license; so that, the City Collector may in every instance obtain the licensee’s state vehicle license number and whereas there is need of adequate provision for the information necessary to be furnished upon application for said license, an emergency is hereby declared to exist and this ordinance being necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, it shall be in full force and effects from and after its passage and approval.
PASSED and ADOPTED this 6th day of February, 1956.