Wyoming’s joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee voted narrowly last month to sponsor legislation in the 2021 session that would allow cities and counties to move notices for meeting minutes and employee salaries from newspapers to their own websites. The committee advanced the bill on a 7-6 vote after hearing testimony that it would save cash-strapped local governments $400,000 in annual expenditures. Six Republicans and the only Democrat on the committee voted in favor of the bill.
Interim committees signal potential trouble ahead
Many in the newspaper industry are wondering how public notice laws will fare in light of the fiscal crises precipitated in many states by the pandemic. Interim committee hearings last month in Wyoming and Arkansas suggest the answer may depend, at least in part, on the size and scale of each state’s budget deficit.
The Sept. 11 hearing in Cheyenne left Wyoming Press Association (WPA) Executive Director Darcie Hoffland in a state of heightened concern. By a 10-3 vote, the joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee approved a motion to direct the Legislative Service Office to draft a bill that would move notices for meeting minutes and government-employee salaries from newspapers to local government websites. [CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated the motion was “to introduce a bill next session” that would move the notices.]