Preserve law designed to inform voters

When people are looking for New York news that affects them, they do not turn to a state agency website. They turn to a local newspaper.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to repeal a law requiring that notices of proposed amendments to the state Constitution be published by news organizations.

And he wants this to be a built-in part of the state budget bill.

Our state legislators should not go along. The law should not be repealed.

The law in question assures that the full wording of a proposed amendment – not a misleading or slanted interpretation – would be available to citizens. It requires that the proposal be disseminated through a newspaper in each county of the state. Most of these newspapers land on voters’ doorsteps.

Why the governor wouldn’t want as many people to see proposed Constitutional amendments is a mystery.

For instance, Cuomo has called for a Constitutional amendment to strip public pensions from legislators convicted of crimes. Sounds like a great idea. Yet under the repeal legislation he is pushing, the proposed language for this amendment would be available only on obscure websites few voters will ever see.

Sure, legally required notices means revenue for publications. But the amount is small, and the savings to taxpayers negligible.

The proposed legislation says it will save $342,000. The New York News Publishers Association, which represents the publishers of newspapers in the state, has done the math. Based on newspaper circulation, the so-called savings translates to about 6 cents per reader.

The proposed alternative is for the state Board of Elections to post an abstract and brief description of the proposed amendment somewhere on its website for three days in the week prior to the election.

The secretary of state would also post a notice somewhere on its website once per month for three months. Those postings should be done, but in addition to, not instead of, the newspaper publication.

At a time when there is general agreement that there is a need to increase transparency and accountability in state government, it is astounding that this provision is included in a budget bill.

The governor recently unveiled a long-term investment to address the broad swathes of New York state that lack access to modern Internet service. But his proposed repeal effectively disenfranchises voters in rural areas, voters who cannot afford a home computer with broadband access and voters who are not highly computer literate.

Voters who are highly computer literate wouldn’t be served, either. Time after time, when asked to support legislation that would require government agencies to post basic information on their websites, legislators reply that it is too difficult or expensive.

To ensure a tamper-proof publication of these most vital legislative initiatives would cost money, perhaps much more than the legislation estimates will be saved by eliminating newspaper public notice of amendments.

Newspaper publication keeps everyone honest.

Knowing that a government document must be published by an outside entity helps prevent the possibility that such an important notice could be misstated.

And newspaper publication provides a historic record, unlike government websites. Editor’s note: The information and much of the wording for this editorial are from the New York News Publishers Association’s Memorandum of Opposition to Assembly Bill 3005 and Senate Bill 2005, which would repeal the Newspaper Publication of Proposed Constitutional Amendments Public Protection and General Government Article VII Bill, Part F.

Cuomo’s proposed repeal effectively disenfranchises voters who cannot afford or operate a home computer with Internet access.