Legislation to take public notices out of newspapers raises question: Would it save or cost money?

[The Straight Story]

Legislation to take public notices out of newspapers raises question: Would it save or cost money?
Supporters say agencies could choose how to list their public notices. Opponents say online-only notices would limit access and hurt newspapers


York, PA - Look through any Pennsylvania newspaper and you'll see the public notices. A planning board holding a meeting. A school board releasing its budget. A township board of supervisors taking bids for contract work.

State law requires those notices to be there, to make members of the public aware of certain actions and proposals.

But at least four bills have been proposed in the state legislature that would take away the requirement for public agencies to place those notices in the paper. Under the proposals, public notices posted on an agency's Website would suffice.

Deborah Musselman, director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said the proposals set a bad precedent. She said such a move would limit the public's knowledge of government actions that might have an impact on their lives.

http://www.ydr.com/ci_18090233

[Horse with no Name]

1. Well of course the ultimate goal wouldn't be to

perform city business in secret, would it?

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. I wouldn't want to be a historian a hundred years from now...

...nothing to work with.

We know far more about the seventeenth century than the twenty-second will know about the twenty-first.

[musiclawyer]

3. Only if Internet access becomes a universal right .....

Which it's not right now because it's unavailable or prohibitably expensive in many places and for many people. And very few places have free municipal wifi So no........ In most places this is taxpayer money well spent