A bill that would allow residents and government organizations to electronically publish official public notifications rather than paying newspapers to do so was shelved by Idaho House members on Wednesday.
By a vote of 9–6, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee decided to keep House Bill 33 in committee.
Rep. Jeff Ehlers, a Republican from Meridian, introduced the bill, arguing that it will modernize public notices and lower the expenses that government agencies in Idaho incur when they pay newspapers to publish them.
The law would have permitted the publication of public notices online on a website run by the state government, allowing users to sign up for alerts.
According to the bill’s fiscal note, state and local governments would have saved at least $1 million annually. According to the fiscal note, the cost of developing a state public notice website would have been $570,000 in one-time expenses and about $300,000 annually in continuing operating expenditures.
It’s critical that we return to the purpose of public announcements. And in my opinion, that’s what it’s for—to inform the public of what’s going on and to make the government’s activities more transparent,” Ehlers told the committee.
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In their opposition to the bill, a number of newspaper representatives pointed out that public notices are already accessible online via a website run by the Newspaper Association of Idaho. In support of the bill, representatives from the Idaho School Boards Association, the Idaho Association of Counties, the Association of Idaho Cities, and the commissioners of Ada County testified.
After some senators voiced concerns about letting the state government handle public notice publication, the committee decided to keep the bill in committee.
Rep. Joe Alfieri, R-Coeur d’Alene, stated that the purpose of the regulations we publish in newspapers is to ensure that specific notices are brought to the public’s attention so that they can take appropriate action. We run the danger of having that information withheld from the public when it isn’t in the state’s best interests if we give it to them.
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