Public notices legislation threatens local newspapers

Public notices are valuable tools of our democracy because they provide due process to Americans who will be impacted by the government action and help make the democratic process more transparent.

But there are legislators in Pennsylvania who seek to, whether purposefully or not, hinder that process and make it less transparent.

Newspapers across Pennsylvania are looking with alarm at legislation proposed in the state House of Representatives that would make optional the longstanding requirement for municipalities to publish public meeting notices and legal advertisements in the predominant local newspaper of record.

House Bill 955, now under review in the House Local Government Committee and possibly on track for a vote to send it to the House floor for consideration, would allow public sector agencies to choose from seven options for notifying the public of their intent to do the people’s business.

If HB955 goes through, people will be required to visit numerous websites to find notices that could concern the sale of property through a mortgage foreclosure, the changing of the name of one’s child, the opening of the administration of an estate, or a general notice of the filing of a lawsuit where the defendant hasn’t been informed.

It’s illogical to expect Pennsylvanians to routinely and randomly search websites to determine whether there’s a court action that impacts them, their businesses, other family members or friends. The chances they learn of such court action from the newspaper is much greater — either by seeing it themselves or learning from someone else who read it in the paper.

Effectively moving the notices from newspapers to a government website will reduce the opportunities for such notices to be seen by Pennsylvanians. Legislators should be looking at ways to expand the reach of public notices, not constrict that reach.

Sunshine Notices and legal ads in the classified section of “a newspaper of general circulation in the county” have for generations been the standard for making constituents — residents, voters, taxpayers, ratepayers and other stakeholders — aware of the planned work of their elected officials.

The impetus behind this proposal is, in no small part, an effort to relieve boroughs, townships, counties, cities, school boards and other agencies doing the public business to reduce their expenditure of public dollars on newspaper advertising. It’s not wild speculation to offer that some of the sponsoring lawmakers have adversarial relationships with the newspapers in their home districts.

Authors of the legislation propose to allow Sunshine ads to be placed in newspapers printed in the local government unit, and newspapers circulating generally in the local government unit, which generally keep local publications like this newspaper among the choices.

Where the legislation falls short of truly serving the constituents is in its offer of “the local government unit’s publicly accessible internet website” and “a locally circulated printed publication that is at least four pages long” as options for meeting the statutory obligation of conducting business in the public light. These options miss the mark of the long-prescribed concept of “general circulation” in a given market.

An advertisement on a website disenfranchises those residents not using technology. In many rural areas of Pennsylvania, significant numbers of those stakeholders are senior citizens or residents in neighborhoods not served with adequate broadband and internet connection.

Newspapers continue to hold a great audience share among mainstream media. Newspapers reach more than 7 of 10 Pennsylvanians each week.

One needs to look no further than the pandemic to see local newspapers and websites out there reporting, telling people what was happening, how to get help, and how to protect themselves. Newspapers have endured beyond the emergence of radio, television and the internet and remain what many view as the historical record of their markets and communities. The newspaper remains the standard. Its reputation as a source for complete and thorough reporting of the day’s events clearly makes it the source that residents — and local government agencies — should continue to rely on as the pillar of the democratic process that it always have been.

We urge our readers to contact state representatives and ask them to oppose House Bill 955.