They?re at it again.
It never fails, when politicians think the budget sky is falling, they turn to the possible elimination of public notices from newspapers as their favorite whipping boy.
Rep. Phil Barnhart recently introduced legislation that would allow municipalities to publish only a minimal notice that governmental annual budgets would be found on-line on the worldwide web.
There are so many things wrong with this mentality it is difficult to focus on just a few points.
The purpose of public notices is just that: to notify those of us who live within a certain municipal boundary and pay taxes which support services within that boundary, how our money is being spent.
We?re not saying elected officials are crooked. In fact, we have high praise for our local elected officials, but that doesn?t mean all elected folks are ethical and honest as noted by headlines from other newspapers throughout the year.
Public notices are published in newspapers because they are a permanent and lasting record in the communities they serve. Our newspaper can be found on microfilm at the Genealogy Library dating back to 1930, just months after its founding in September 1929.
Bound volumes in our office date back to 1940 or so. Every issue for every year. If you want to know what the city council or school board was up to 60 years ago, it can be found, ink on paper, at our office.
Who knows how long or how permanent the web is. We think it?s a useful adjunct to publications but certainly not as permanent or lasting. Web information can be changed at any time, not so the printed word.
Public notices published in newspapers must be notarized to be found binding and legal, a safeguard you won?t find via other mediums. It provides an independent stamp that what was supposed to be printed, was printed and within the specific time period of the law. Word for word.
Proponents of not publishing public notices say they are often boring and not read by the community at large.
Yes, they can be boring, but the fact is, some folks read public notices religiously and they should. They are your employees –elected or government staff members–reporting to you. They are like the annual report of a Fortune 500 company to its stockholders, only in this case, the stockholders are the taxpayers.
Our newspaper and EXTRA shopper?s guide our delivered to virtually every home in the Sweet Home School District. No other medium can guarantee that coverage. Even a full page public notice costs only pennies per household to be composed, printed and delivered.
In spite of what politicians want you to believe, publishing public notices amounts to a very small part of any public body?s budget.
School District 55?s Kevin Strong reports this week about the upcoming school budget process, that some employees are earning up to $10 per hour in benefits alone. For some, benefits equal their hourly wage. How does that compare to the amount spent annually on notifying the thousands of residents in the school district about items of public interest?
So, when politicians take aim at informing you about the costs of doing business in your community, they?re not telling the whole story. It makes them look good to other government officials, but they?re not really looking out for your best interests in the long run.
Public notices, like open meetings laws and freedom of information regulations, should be strengthened and not slashed. That?s for the public?s good, not for the media.
Politicians deluge newspaper offices every day with ?press releases? touting their many wondrous attributes. They do so because they know newspapers are credible resources for the communities they serve and the information they carry forward can be relied upon.
They just don?t want to help pay the many expenses associated with delivering that information to their constituents.