In a kind of follow-up to a previous story he reported 10 years ago on government subsidies for newspapers, former newspaper editor David Westphal took a close look earlier this month for the Poynter Institute at the state of public notice.
Although we’re never happy when public notice is framed as a government subsidy, as opposed to payment for service rendered, we concede reasonable people may disagree on that point. We also know from working with him as a source on the story that Westphal takes his responsibility to report the issue fairly and accurately quite seriously. Few journalists have covered public notice with more insight and intelligence than Westphal brings to this story.
Governor calls newspaper notice requirement ‘stupid’
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) clearly appreciates good journalism and supports a free and independent press. But it’s also clear he hasn’t thought very deeply about public notice and he is too confident of his understanding of the issue.
We base that judgment on extemporaneous remarks Colorado’s chief executive made during an April 17 press conference on the state’s response to COVID-19.
With about 15 minutes remaining in the press conference, Denver Post reporter Alex Burness asked the governor for his thoughts on the impact of news deserts in the state and whether he believes government support or funding of the news business is appropriate.
Cuomo uses emergency powers to suspend notices
Before it approved a budget in the early morning hours and left Albany last month as the coronavirus first struck the state with full force, the New York legislature granted Gov. Andrew Cuomo (pictured at left) emergency power to suspend laws he believes compromise public health. The governor has not been shy about exercising his new exigent authority.
On April 20, Cuomo issued an executive order that, among other things, allowed cities and towns in the state to file property tax assessment rolls up to 30 days later than the June 1 statutory deadline, and authorized them to publish the assessment notices “solely online so long as the date for hearing complaints is prominently displayed”.
Which public notice bill will become law in Kentucky?
It’s been over a month since the Kentucky legislature passed two different, slightly conflicting public notice bills. There has been some confusion about which one will become law when the current statute sunsets on June 30, but that question appears to have been answered last week.
When we last left the Bluegrass State, HB195 had been vetoed by Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and HB351 had not. The governor later used his line-item veto to strike a number of provisions in HB351, a budget bill, including those relating to public notice. The Republican-dominated legislature ultimately overturned both of Beshear’s vetoes.
The danger of suspending publication during the COVID-19 crisis
The town of Glastonbury, Connecticut announced last week it would begin publishing public notices on its website in lieu of the newspaper notice normally required by law, according to Manchester’s Journal Inquirer. In its statement, Glastonbury cited an emergency order issued on March 21 by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) that “suspended and modified” the state’s public notice laws to allow notices “to be published electronically on a municipality’s or agency’s website”.
New Kentucky public notice law maintains status quo ante
After following a convoluted path that included two different bills, half a dozen amendments, five floor votes and a grand compromise, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill last week ensuring that the state’s public notice law would remain mostly unchanged.
The original public notice provisions of both HB195 and HB351 would have moved all government notice in the Bluegrass State from newspapers to government websites. Following a compromise earlier this year between the Kentucky Press Association (KPA) and the associations representing cities and counties in the state, HB195 was amended to exclude counties with population under 80,000. That amendment brought it closer to the state’s current law — passed two years ago and due to sunset this summer — which allows counties with population above 90,000 to run notices on their own websites; decreasing the population threshold by 10,000 would have increased the number of website-notice-only counties from eight to ten.
What’s happening with foreclosure notices?
COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on life as we know it. Little has been left untouched, including the mortgage market and foreclosure process.
At the federal level, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks, is providing payment forbearance for up to 12 months to borrowers impacted by the crisis. FHFA also directed Fannie and Freddie to suspend foreclosures for at least 60 days. The Department of Housing and Urban Development also suspended evictions and foreclosures until the end of April.
Many state and local governments are also offering relief to borrowers affected by the crisis.
The Kentucky Compromise
Republican domination of Kentucky’s statehouse has not been a positive development for the Bluegrass State’s public notice laws, which have been under siege for the better part of the last decade. The fight came to a head in 2017, when the GOP assumed majority-party status in both chambers for the first time in the state’s modern history.
After failing to move public notice legislation via the normal committee process in 2017, state Senator Chris McDaniel (R-Covington) added language to a budget bill authorizing local governments in counties over 90,000 in population to publish most government notices on their own websites. McDaniel’s amendment also allowed school districts in the state to publish annual financial statements on their websites instead of newspapers. The bill eventually passed both the House and Senate, but former Governor Matt Bevin vetoed it because it raised taxes. His veto was overridden.
Property owners in Cape Coral get a rude surprise
In an unsigned editorial last month opposing Florida bills S1340 and HB7, the Lehigh Acres Citizen described a recent situation in which local residents were outraged to learn about zoning changes that normally would have been noticed in a newspaper, but weren’t.
In its opinion piece, the Lee County paper noted that proponents of moving notices to government websites say it would save money.
If government-website notice is cheaper, the Citizen asked, why isn’t it better? It then answered that question by describing what happened last year when the city of Cape Coral was allowed to overhaul its comprehensive plan without publishing a notice.
‘Enemy of the people’ rhetoric takes toll on public notice in statehouses
Bills have been introduced in at least seven states so far this year that would move most public notice from its traditional home in newspapers to lightly visited government websites. And at least of few of those bills were introduced by legislators who have had fraught relationships with the newspapers that cover them.
The states that appear at present to face the greatest potential peril — Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri — have all been down this path before.