I’ve always liked the quote attributed to German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”
I like it even more after recently coming across an article in the New York Times in which the owner of a sausage factory is insulted at the comparison. The sausage maker notes that while pork goes into his sausage, as it frequently goes into legislation, for sausage there is a specific recipe and ingredients are accurately identified. Bones and other inedible parts are disposed of, while according to Robert Pear of the New York Times, Congress recycles those unsavory pieces again and again.
I agree. One such piece of legislation that keeps returning to the Minnesota legislature year after year is a bill that would give local governments the choice of taking public notices out of newspapers and posting them only on government websites. It has been introduced nearly every year since the Internet became a prevalent form of communication— and nearly every year it has either not gained enough support to go to committee or it has been defeated.
It is of course a relief to the newspaper industry. Yes, a small portion of our revenue comes from publishing legal notices. So whenever a journalist speaks against use of government websites for legal notices, we are met with skepticism.
However, I counter that skepticism with the fact that the money paid to a newspaper for legal notices in no way covers the cost of the hours reporters spend in government meetings. The cost of publishing legal notices doesn’t cover the expense of reporters traveling to meetings. It doesn’t pay for hours spent reading and researching or for printing out necessary documents. It doesn’t cover time spent in follow-up calls and emails and in-person interviews about a controversial issue.
No, the bulk of revenue at a newspaper comes from our readers and advertisers. Thanks to all of you, we have extensive coverage of government meetings.
At first glance it looks like lifting the requirement for government bodies to post legal notices in the local newspaper is a good way to save money. I’m a taxpayer too and I want my government officials to be fiscally responsible. But the amount of tax dollars spent on legal notices is likely less than the county spends on office furniture each year. It is certainly far less than what is spent on a single piece of equipment for the county highway department.
But any financial benefits gained are far outweighed by the negative consequences. The reason for requiring legal notices in newpapers is to publicize information about government actions in places where the public is most likely to see it.
The average citizen does not have the time or energy to visit the websites of all of the governmental entities that could possibly impact his or her life. If there is not a central location to see all the proposed government actions, people are going to miss the chance to participate in the democratic process.
One of the first acts of the federal government, in 1789, was the requirement that every bill, order, resolution and congressional vote be printed in a public newspaper. Our Founding Fathers didn’t want to leave notices of government actions up to government alone.
That shouldn’t change just because we now live in a digital world. Newspapers in the state of Minnesota agree that legal notices should be available on the Internet. That is why, 10 years ago, the Minnesota Newspaper Association supported legislation mandating that newspapers place legal notices on their websites at no additional cost.
But that additional Internet publication—on our website or the government entity’s— should never replace the print version of legal notices. Because in addition to needing a central location for the public to find legal notices, a system of properly placing and recording those legal notices should be in place.
There is no archival history to government websites as there is with newspapers. We’ve been recording history here at the Cook County News-Herald for over 120 years. It is doubtful that government Internet postings will be around to be viewed a year from now, 10 years or 50 years from now.
And, as our Founding Fathers knew, newspaper publication prevents government from deciding how and when a notice is published, and whether it is changed after it is published. Public notices in newspapers are a critical check and balance on potential government errors.
Laying a bill over generally means that its proponents don’t think there is enough support for it to be approved. I hope that continues to be the case. I think our Founding Fathers would agree.
The essence of Government is
power; and power, lodged as
it must be in human hands,
will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison
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