A few weeks ago in these pages, Kane Webb told the story of how the land for the Clinton library in Little Rock is being financed. To avoid a referendum on Clinton by having a vote on new bonds to pay for the land, the city decided to use proceeds from already issued revenue bonds. But can revenue bonds be used to pay for a project that isn't producing any revenue? That was the question before the Arkansas supreme court, which last week sided with the city. Sort of.
In a twist, the court encouraged the appellant, a 68-year-old retired house-wife and unretiring citizen named Nora Harris, to sue the city again, because what it's doing may indeed be illegal. One of the problems, the court pointed out, was that Harris's case was filed before the city may have started dipping into tax money it can't legally use to buy land for the library. (It's against the law in Arkansas to use tax money to pay off revenue bonds.)
Harris says she may sue again. If so, her chances of winning now look a lot better. And the chances of an early end to the Clinton controversies continue to recede.