LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - An out-of-state investment adviser is suing Arkansas over the fees it charges him and others working in the securities industry to do business in the state.
Those fees aren't even used to keep the state's Securities Department operating, Thomas Edward Blumer's Dec. 30 lawsuit says.
"Over the course of a single fiscal year, these fees can total $17 million or more," the suit says. "Only a fraction of these fees, less than $4 million, are actually used to regulate the Arkansas securities industry. The remainder of these fees, once collected, are made part of the general revenue account.
Every year, broker-dealers and investment advisers must pay $300 to the state.
"Because (state law) requires the payment of fees so grossly in excess of the fees required to regulate the Arkansas securities industry, these statutory provisions violate the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution," the suit says.
The case a proposed class action and was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court by lawyers Bud Cummins of Little Rock and Matt Bartle and David Marcus of Kansas City, Mo.