SB1006 bad for private business, transparency

Bill would impact how cities post public notices

For decades, the Yuma Sun has published public notices in both our print editions and online.

It’s an incredibly important service by newspapers, providing an additional layer of visibility to the inner workings of local, county and state governments.

There is a plethora of information found within those government public notices, including government bid proposals, resolutions by government bodies, changes to city code and more.

Public notices give residents information about what’s happening in their communities, shining a light on information that might otherwise be unseen. The role of public notices is one of transparency, which in turn leads to accountability.

However, public notices in Arizona are in danger, thanks to Senate Bill 1006.

The bill would remove public notices for cities and towns from newspapers, and would allow municipalities to post them on their own websites instead.

SB1006 is bad for business. It would pull jobs from the private sector, because newspapers employ people who work with government agencies to create and print those public notices. Under this bill, their jobs are now at risk.

And, SB1006 would use taxpayer dollars to create something that already exists in the public sector. Why waste the money?

The Arizona Newspapers Association currently maintains all public notices on a website called www.publicnoticeads.com, which can be accessed by anyone free of charge. There, filings remain for years, giving the public a free, searchable database at zero cost. Public notices can also be found in Arizona newspapers, including this one, as well as on Yumasun.com.

Why spend local taxpayer money on this project when there is already a system in place that functions quite well, and doesn’t cost taxpayers anything – but does hurt private industry?

Another problem is the fact that SB1006 would create a confusing landscape for constituents. Cities would be able to choose whether they post on their own website or in their local newspaper, creating multiple places for people to look for a public notice, which doesn’t make sense. Why make it confusing when there’s already one aggregated website?

Newspapers are an independent, third-party service. Once those records are published, they live on in our statewide database, essentially in a searchable vault.

Public notices create a layer of transparency that’s necessary in every community in the state, and they belong in local newspapers.

Reach out to your state elected officials, and ask them to vote no on SB1006.