Bill to change frequency of legal notices in Idaho newspapers gets pulled
A bill that would alter how often legal notices appear in a newspaper is going to need more work.
Following a hearing before the Idaho House State Affairs Committee on Monday, the bill’s sponsor came back Tuesday morning and asked the committee to hold the bill, effectively killing it for the session.
“Based on some of the comments and things I heard yesterday, I would be curious to see where the interested parties are willing to go in their discussions on this issue as related to public notices and how we may improve the process going forward,” said the bill’s sponsor, Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg.
Committee member Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, told the committee he wants the bill to come back next session.
“This is not the first time we have been here. I am optimistic that the testimony I heard yesterday, as well as the approach that Rep. Raybould is taking, that the interested parties can get together,” he said. “I think they need to come up with something for the 2020 session that we can move forward instead of continuing to kick this political football.”
The bill would have limited how often all legal notices appear in newspapers to one time only and it would establish a requirement that newspapers also publish the legal notice online “via a centralized online platform as the primary notification method” for legal notices.
“I feel like, for better or for worse, I have managed to split this particular baby in a way that I think addresses the concerns that I’ve heard from the entities who must do the legal public notices, and yet, at the same time, is also respecting of the fact of what newspapers do in terms of accountability,” Raybould told the committee during Monday’s hearing.
The cost of submitting a legal notice in print is currently set by the state and is determined by the length of the notice. Raybould’s bill states that submitting legal notices online would cost up to $20, a fee that some who testified took issue with.
Of the eight people who testified during the bill’s hearing, none recommended that the legislation pass to the full House for consideration. Many of those who testified are part of the Newspaper Association of Idaho, of which the Idaho Statesman is a member.
Under current stipulations, some legal notices are required to be printed multiple times in the newspaper, including foreclosure notices, legal name changes, bankruptcies, notices of probate, and others.
Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, said he had concerns about those types of notices not appearing in print more than once out of fear that residents would not have ample time to see them and respond to the notice.
Newspaper Association of Idaho President Travis Quast said printing certain legal notices multiple times is an important service to those affected by them. Quast serves as the regional publisher of the East Idaho Group for Adams Publishing.
“To not take that extra step to make sure that citizens that can be affected directly, by having their home taken from them, for example, having that in the newspaper four times in print as well as online … is a step that is needed,” Quast told the legislators.
Others who testified, including Ada County Commissioner Rick Visser and Idaho Association of Counties Executive Director Seth Grigg, said they don’t support the bill because they do not support taxpayer money going toward legal notices. They said the bill did not go far enough to allow Idaho governmental entities, such as school districts, counties and cities, to be able to move their legal notices to their own online platforms.
“We feel like our whole reason for wanting to transition to online publication is that we feel that it should be more cost effective,” Grigg said, “and it could be done at no cost if you allow governmental entities to publish notice on their respective websites.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 4:05 PM.
