Idaho legislators try yet again to get legal notices out of your local newspaper

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and an attempt by the Idaho Legislature to get legal notices out of newspapers.

Newly elected state Rep. Jon Weber, R-Rexburg, introduced a bill Wednesday to allow government agencies to publish legal notices online instead of in a newspaper, as is now required by state law for some notices.

This issue has come up several times over the years, and as Rep. Randy Armstrong, R-Inkom, pointed out during the House State Affairs Committee where the bill was introduced, “We’ve heard this many times, and it’s always been struck down, as there’s a lot of problems associated with this, so I won’t be voting in favor of it, but thank you.”

Look, I get the arguments for doing this: “Newspapers are a dying industry,” “no one reads newspapers in print anymore” (which isn’t true) and “even if they do read a newspaper, they’re not reading the legal notices” (which, again, isn’t true).

I concede that print newspapers are on the decline, fewer and fewer people are reading them, and even fewer people read the legal notices.

I also acknowledge that newspapers derive revenue from legal notices, as government agencies must pay for them. So a cynical person might say: Of course a guy whose paycheck depends, in part, on legal notices is going to argue in favor of legal notices in print.

In some ways, I wish we would just rip this Band-Aid off and move on without them so we don’t have to keep having this fight every year.

However, I still believe in the importance of publishing legal notices in print, for a few reasons.

If each government agency publishes its own legal notice on its own website, it’s going to be very difficult for a taxpayer to track down every legal notice for every agency they pay taxes to. In Boise, you’d have to go to the website of the city of Boise, Ada County, Ada County Highway District, Mosquito Abatement District, Boise School District, Emergency Medical Services and College of Western Idaho — every day — just to see if that agency has a legal notice. Sure, each agency could set up and maintain an email alert system or a text alert system to inform taxpayers when there’s a new legal notice, but they wouldn’t have to. It also might prove to be too onerous to maintain and update constantly.

Further, if we allow government agencies to publish their own notices on their websites, without any third-party verification, how do we verify they posted correctly and didn’t alter it after the fact?

This isn’t really about government agencies wanting more people to see legal notices. Because, guess what? They can already post legal notices on their websites if they want. If this really were about informing the taxpayer, they’d already be doing it.

Here’s another thing to consider: What if a government agency doesn’t even have a website? Where would they even post a legal notice? What if a taxpayer doesn’t have good internet access or doesn’t have a computer?

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, inquired about using the mail to deliver legal notices, and that was made part of the bill posted Wednesday.

First off, if we’re concerned about cost, sending a legal notice via first-class mail to every taxpayer is a heck of a lot more expensive than a legal notice in the paper.

Second, if this really were about informing taxpayers, they’d already be doing this.

So what is it about? Really, it’s that some politicians just can’t stand newspapers.

“This is a great year to carry this bill because it’s not an election year,” Scott said in supporting the bill. “And usually people are more apt to not vote in favor of this when they might be publicized, their votes in the paper.”

There is perhaps no better endorsement for why we need to maintain our watchdog role — including publishing legal notices.

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 8:33 AM.

Scott McIntosh

Opinion Contributor,

Idaho Statesman

208-377-6202

Scott McIntosh is the Idaho Statesman opinion editor. A graduate of Syracuse University, he joined the Statesman in August 2019. He previously was editor of the Idaho Press and the Argus Observer and was the owner and editor of the Kuna Melba News. He has been honored for his editorials and columns as well as his education, business and local government watchdog reporting by the Idaho Press Club and the National Newspaper Association. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, The Idaho Way. Support my work with a digital subscription