The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill this week that would allow state and local governments to shift publication of legal notices from daily newspapers to government Web sites.
Rep. Thomas Creighton (R., Lancaster) is the sponsor of this particular bill, but at least six similar measures are moving through the General Assembly.
Lawmakers claim the shift to the Internet will save the government money and make the information more available to the public. That sounds good at first blush, but there are other policy issues that make this a bad idea.
First, some full disclosure: Newspapers, including The Inquirer, obviously have a vested interest in this fight. The newspaper industry, which is already hurting as a result of the economic downturn, will lose out on potential revenue if the bill is passed.
But a bigger and more important issue is that moving the legal notices from newspapers to government Web sites would hamper access to public information.
Notices regarding bids for contracts, zoning changes, proposed housing developments, and other public meetings can easily be buried in the bureaucratic maze of a government Web site. Not to mention, the notices will be disbursed to many different Web sites, as opposed to the one-stop shopping of a newspaper.
"It's a needle in the haystack, and you don't know what you're looking for," said Deb Musselman, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.
Musselman also pointed out that many of the lawmakers considering these bills are the same ones who opposed the state's new open-records law. So their track record is suspect.
And moving the public notices to the Internet could end up costing taxpayers more money.
For example, Internet notices for bids on contracts may not get much attention, resulting in fewer bids and higher prices.
One bill calls for a government office or third-party contractor to operate the Web site, which would be an additional cost to taxpayers. Given the sad history in Harrisburg, the Web contract would likely go to some pol's relative or a campaign contributor.
The biggest problem with putting public notices on Web sites is that not every resident has access to the Internet, especially among the elderly and low-income.
Creighton's bill and others like it are bad public policy, and should be stopped.
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