Three bills currently under consideration in Augusta would significantly alter public notice requirements for the state and municipalities.
Current law requires that the public be notified of public hearings, meetings and other legal notices in a paper of record.
In an effort to trim the state budget, LD 1445 was proposed, which would remove all state notices from newspapers by July 1, 2012 and place them on a state-operated website instead ”“ almost free.
Along with that bill, two others have been proposed: LD 392 would remove municipal notices from newspapers, in favor of direct mail or electronic delivery; and LD 940 would eliminate notices of adopted rules from newspapers.
Though it’s easy to wax poetic about the place of newspapers in society, the fact of the matter is that the true end result of these bills, should they become law, would be to diminish public notice.
The public notice laws were put in place for the sole purpose of assuring that the general public would have sufficient notice to participate in local and state politics and be made aware of goings-on that could affect them or their property. Democracy depends on public involvement, and people can’t get involved if they don’t know what’s going on.
Not everyone reads their paper every day from front to back, but there are still plenty of people who do, and even those who don’t normally check out the public notices will be looking when they are expecting a major issue to come forward in their town.
Your community paper is supposed to be the one-stop shopping for information about your locale, from honor rolls to city council votes, and yes, even those small-print public notices in the back.
People who get the paper are people who want to be informed and involved in their community. Many of them delight in being the first to know about upcoming meetings and recent decisions because they take the time to read the fine print. And many of them may not have the Internet at home.
Maine residents deserve to have a trusted source on which they can depend for information about their community. With so many websites and emails of questionable origin popping up every day, it is even more crucial for the state and towns to post all-important notices in well-established newspapers that people can trust.
At the same time, newspapers have expenses. There’s payroll, health insurance costs, heating costs and building upkeep to take care of ”“ and taxes to pay. That is why the newspaper charges a fee to print public notices. The fees help keep the lights on for newspapers across Maine.
According to a recent study commissioned by the Maine Press Association, the newspaper industry in Maine in 2010 provided jobs for 1,766 people, paid wages and benefits of $71.3 million and paid nearly $7.5 million in state and local taxes.
Some say, “Why should newspapers make a buck on the backs of the taxpayer?”
Well, for the same reasons the auto dealer makes a buck selling a fleet of vehicles to the state or the office supply company makes money selling reams of paper to the state offices. The money keeps circulating, which in turn creates tax dollars, and so on.
So far, LD 1445, which would remove all state notices from newspapers, has received a unanimous rejection from the legislature’s State and Local Government Committee.
Those of us at the paper are hoping for similar “ought not to pass” recommendations on the other bills as well ”“ not only out of a sense of self-preservation, but with a focus on preserving the average citizen’s right to know. We would urge anyone who feels similarly to contact their legislators to ask for their rejection of these bills.
Ӣ Ӣ Ӣ
Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via e-mail at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
