Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) clearly appreciates good journalism and supports a free and independent press. But it’s also clear he hasn’t thought very deeply about public notice and he is too confident of his understanding of the issue.

We base that judgment on extemporaneous remarks Colorado’s chief executive made during an April 17 press conference on the state’s response to COVID-19.

With about 15 minutes remaining in the press conference, Denver Post reporter Alex Burness asked the governor for his thoughts on the impact of news deserts in the state and whether he believes government support or funding of the news business is appropriate.

Gov. Polis responded first by thanking the Denver Post for dropping its paywall so more readers could access the paper’s coronavirus coverage.

“It’s so important, especially in these times, that people are able to turn to trusted, objective news sources for the information that we need to protect ourselves and our families,” said the governor.

Then he talked with sensitivity and understanding about the business challenges faced by the news industry and about the potential dangers of government funding of newspapers, including the threat it could pose to an independent press. Reasonable people might disagree with his perspective but he is clearly passionate about the subject.

At that point in the press conference the governor paused to take another question and when one didn’t come immediately, he decided to offer a few off-the-cuff remarks on the subject of public notice. Here are his verbatim comments, with a few “you knows” excised. (A video of the comments is posted below.)

“Let me give you an example, Alex. It’s stupid requirements. I would have said it’s stupid a year ago. And it’s still stupid and some day it has to go away. You know, you change your name and you got to take out an ad in the local paper. In the public announcement. And, in the long run — you know I’m a free-market guy — I think that’s silly because you can do it online.

“Let me just say that if they tried to do that now (laughing) I’d veto it. Because we’ve got to keep that little revenue source there for our press. Talk to me about it in three or four years and I’ll get rid of that requirement and you guys’ll oppose it. But right now we need that, the money from those name changes and everything else, and those public notices. That’s a key source for those little papers. So keep that going and we’ll fight that fight some other day.”

Aside from the fact that he completely contradicted the statements he made 60 seconds earlier about government subsidies, the governor’s focus on name changes instead of government or foreclosure notices, and his failure to even address the issue of government transparency — the primary policy rationale for public notice statutes — suggests he hasn’t spent a lot of time thinking about this subject.