Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed three bills last month that will impact the state’s public notice laws. When it takes effect on July 1, the most significant bill will make Indiana the first state to authorize government units to publish primary notice on some newspaper websites or e-editions.
House Bill 1204, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously, allows local governments and state agencies to circumvent the print editions of most newspapers by posting notices in one of their digital products as an alternative. However, the bill only applies to newspapers that distribute fewer than four editions per week; print will remain the exclusive means for government notice in papers that are published more frequently.
The newspaper industry’s challenge
A recent column on the nonprofit news website the Pennsylvania Capital-Star argues that Pennsylvania voters should receive more notice about proposed amendments to the state’s Constitution advanced by Republican lawmakers this year. The column’s author, Patrick Beaty, believes the notice requirements set by the Constitution are insufficient.
We have no position on the substance of the amendments or on Beaty’s call for more transparency surrounding the amendment process.
Nevertheless, his column offers an excellent illustration of a major challenge facing the newspaper industry: To reframe the debate around public notice by helping people understand that notices published in newspapers are also published on newspaper websites.
Public notice award winners announced
Did you know some local governments in drought-ridden areas “seed” their clouds to increase precipitation? Many in Northern New Mexico were mystified on Nov. 4, 2021, when they read a public notice in the Taos News about an application filed with a state water commission for such a “weather control and precipitation enhancement” project that was to set to begin the following month.
News coverage of the notice and the local controversy it spawned earned the Taos News and veteran editor and reporter Rick Romancito first-place in this year’s Michael Kramer Public Notice Journalism Award competition. Sam Galski of the Standard-Speaker in Hazleton, Pa., won second-place. Two North Dakota papers — The Bismarck Tribune and 2020 public notice award winner The (Crosby) Journal — tied for third.
‘Devastating’ public notice bill debated in Pennsylvania
A hearing was held last week in Pennsylvania on House Bill 955, which would provide local governments in the state with the option to move their notices from paid-circulation newspapers to government websites or government-printed publications, newspaper websites, free-circulation newspapers, legal newspapers or shoppers.
The hearing was notable for the breadth of issues it addressed and the emphasis the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association placed on the economic impact the bill would have on local newspapers in the state if it passes.
The Constitutional Amendment Public Notice Snafu Blues
Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (pictured at left) may be the first elected official ever to resign for failing to publish public notice advertisements. Boockvar stepped down in February after her office missed a publication deadline and delayed the potential passage of a constitutional amendment by at least two years.
“An amendment had been on track for a likely vote on the May 18 primary ballot until it was revealed that the Department of State had missed a key legal advertising deadline, scuttling the proposal, and resetting the clock,” reported the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
N.C. County Targeted in Public Notice Bill
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
North Carolina State Senator Trudy Wade (R-Greensboro, photo on left) heeded that advice and last week finally succeeded in passing a bill that makes government less transparent.
After her two previous efforts to move public notice in the state from newspapers to government websites failed, in March Wade introduced another sweeping revision of the state’s public notice laws. When her bill stalled in the House, as it had in the previous legislative session, Wade didn’t give up.