Rep. Harry Warren, R-Rowan, says he realized while campaigning last year that quite a few people donít have computers in their homes.
So he opposes a bill to allow cities and counties to post public notices on their own government websites instead of publishing them in local newspapers ó a measure that would leave a lot of citizens out of the loop. Warren says heís all for allowing local governments to post notices on their websites and put them in the paper, but not in lieu of putting them in the paper, as House Bill 472 is now written.
Warrenís point is a good one ó one of several strong arguments against HB472, tentatively set for public hearing in the House Finance Committee this week. Some people donít own computers. And among the thousands of Rowan citizens who do have them, few are likely to count the county website among their most-visited sites.
State Rep. Paul Stam, R-Apex, and a small coalition of Republicans and Democrats have been leading the charge to remove government public notices from newspapers. Bill supporters say theyíre trying to save money for cities and counties, which pay newspapers an estimated $6 million a year to publish public notices. Split among 100 counties and some 500 municipalities, thatís a modest sum. When you consider how many fewer people would see those notices if they did not appear in newspapers and newspaper websites (see www.salisburypost.com/legals/), you realize the ěsavingsî could come at a high price in terms of government transparency.
Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Rowan and Davie, has introduced a Senate version of the same bill. He told the Post he was looking at saving money and at the way people will communicate in the future. Who doesnít have a computer these days, he said, in effect. He should confer with Warren.
Besides, if itís online readers Brock is after, newspapers have plenty of those, too. The Salisbury Post and the Davie Enterprise Record already post public notices on their websites, as do other newspapers. Between print and online, the Postís total readership is 56,500, according to recent research. In March, salisburypost.com had 3.49 million page views, showing that readers go to our site again and again for information.
Citizens are far more likely to see public notices in the heavily used print and digital products of the local newspaper than to seek out notices on a government site.
The Post has a financial interest in this issue, but public notices will not make or break our budget ó nor the cityís and countyís. As the State Port Pilot put it recently, ěOn a pie-chart of newspaper income, public notices represent only a small slice. On a pie-chart of government spending, they are but a sliver.î
The real point is openness. Lawmakers long ago decided informing the public through widely distributed newspapers was well worth that sliver. These laws came about because some governments failed to alert the public about important meetings and ěsweetheartî deals. Taking those notices out of newspapersí print and digital products would not be a step into the future but a retreat to the ways of old.