Notice anything?

Big government heard from

This seems to come up every few legislative sessions: Some lawmaker (or three) decides that government knows best, and wants to enshrine that thought into law. So said lawmaker proposes a law to keep legal notices out of newspapers and put them on government websites.

These bills have failed in the past. But who’s to say what the current crop in the Ledge might do?

We’ve had to explain this to lawmakers before: The Freedom of Information Act isn’t the Freedom of Information for Reporters Act. FOIA is there for every citizen to use when tracking down government information. It just so happens that reporters use it a lot because it’s a part of their jobs/beats/obsessions. Reporters (and their editors) know the law, and use it often, but that law was not put in place for them. Not in a state with our official motto.

It’s the same with government legal notices. This law wasn’t put on the books to help out newspapers financially, but to keep the public informed — without having to go to a government website to search for times of meetings, salary levels of elected officials, etc.

If you don’t think that the government can hide information, or blur it, or ignore it, you haven’t been paying attention. Try visiting IRS.gov sometime.

House Bill 1399 by state Rep. Frances Cavenaugh (R-Walnut Ridge) would strike the language from current law that requires your local governments to publish notices in local newspapers. Under the bill, a county quorum court would designate the website you’d go to . . . if you have a computer and Wi-Fi handy.

Lawmakers who vote for this would be voting to increase your government’s power. And we thought this state was redder than that.

Do you trust county officials enough to leave it to them to post meeting times faithfully? And do you trust your city officials that they are competent

enough to handle this job? Shifting this responsibility from newspapers to those with a vested interest, perhaps, in what the public should know is big government at work. And trying to get bigger. Ask yourself, Skeptical Citizen: Why should those using/living on government money get to decide what you should, or shouldn’t, worry your pretty little head about?

Those lawmakers who claim to work for limited government would vote against this bill. Or maybe somebody should remind them of that state motto: Regnat populus.