A great deal of bad legislation died when 15 more state legislatures adjourned in May, including bills in five states that would have removed all or large segments of public notice advertising from newspapers.
The most significant legislation to expire was a bill in Missouri that was close to passage and would have shifted foreclosure notices from newspapers to mortgage-trustee websites. Missouri House Bill 1651 and its Senate companion were both voted out of committee following hearings earlier this year, but neither got to the floor for a vote before the legislature packed it in for the year in mid-May.
Several harmful public notice bills still technically remain among the living in the 14 states that haven’t adjourned yet, but at this point none appear to have much chance of passage. All things considered, 2018 looks like it may turn out to be a relatively good year for public notice legislation. Aside from some moderate damage inflicted before the legislative bell sounded in Kentucky, the public notice bills that have passed so far this year have been decidedly minor.
Here is a roundup of legislation enacted since our previous summary in April. As is often the case with minor public notice bills, most of the notice changes are incidental to the primary focus of the legislation.
Illinois
Current law requires foreclosure sale notices outside of Cook County to be advertised in both the public notice and real estate sections of a local newspaper. House Bill 5176 extends the mandate for the second advertisement to Cook County, but requires it to be published in a different newspaper than the first and specifies that the second paper must be published in the township in which the real estate is located. (The governor hasn’t signed the bill yet.)
Iowa
Senate File 2227 requires county auditors to include a summary or complete text of resolutions adopted by boards of supervisors, and clarifies the information necessary to make a summary sufficient. The new law brings these requirements for counties in line with what is already mandated for cities.
Maryland
Senate Bill 399 reduces the number of newspapers in which the Baltimore City Board of License Commissioners is required to publish notice of alcohol-service license applications, from three to two. Senate Bill 540 increases the threshold amount of Garret County contract bids that require newspaper notice, from $15,000 to $25,000.
Minnesota
House File 3841 and its Senate companion raises the threshold for contract bids requiring newspaper notice under the Uniform Municipal Contracting Law, from $100,000 to $175,000.
Oklahoma
House Bill 3347 eliminates the exception to newspaper notice requirements for municipal budgets under $12,000. It also supplements newspaper notice of municipal and county budget hearings by requiring government website notice as well. Senate Bill 1273 and its House companion reduce from two to one the number of newspaper notices self-storage facilities must publish prior to a lien sale. It also now requires self-storage operators to publish such notices in a newspaper in an adjoining county when there isn’t a paper in the county in which their facilities are located. (The original version of SB 1273 allowed self-storage facilities to eliminate newspaper notice.)
South Carolina
House Bill 4683 and its Senate companion require the Department of Health and Environmental Control to publish on its website proposed locations of beachfront baselines and setback lines at least 120 days before the boundaries are established. The agency must also provide notice of that publication in both a statewide and local newspaper.