Opinion: Anti-democratic legal ads bill before Pa. Senate
April 16, 2009
OPINION
By MARTIN K. TILL
Publisher of The Express-Times, Easton.
So here we go.
Your local and state governments are hoping you, the taxpayers and voters, continue to not care.
They are banking on you not paying attention, and relying on your apathy.
They are going to play the "media" card and hope you don't start asking questions.
And if you do nothing, as they hope you do, they will create a system that will create more potential for theft, back door deals and corruption than you have ever seen. It is a very innocent proposal and "it will save the taxpayers money," they will claim.
Your government wants to take legal notices out of the public domain and put them on government Web sites. Your government leaders want to take the "public" out of public notices.
They want you to trust them to do the right thing. They want you to believe they will never miss a deadline for notice of a meeting you plan to attend. They want you to trust them to do your business in private.
The cynics will cry that newspapers are only concerned about this because we get paid for legal advertising. They will claim they are overpaying for the "public" service.
Don't buy it.
The cost of paying for legal notices in newspapers of general, audited circulation is less than half of one percent of local budgets.
How about this for an idea? Let's require our elected officials to stop taking perks and benefits.
Such cutbacks will more than make up for the money spent to inform you of the agendas of public officials.
And there will be no need to turn public agendas into private ones.
Legal notices are already being placed online, by newspapers. We already reach the public with the ads in the newspaper and by making them available on Web sites that are also rich with other content and already reach wide audiences with all sorts of important public information.
How will the "public" know what Web sites to search for government-sponsored legal advertising?
How will municipalities deal with the cost of running and maintaining a robust Web site?
How will people who live in rural areas and don't have Internet access gain this public information?
How will the thousands of people who don't have Internet access for economic or generational reasons gain access to this information?
Providing public notices online is already being done by the private sector, but government insists on trying to compete with it for reasons that do not serve the public good.
In Pennsylvania, Senate Bill 419 is about excluding taxpayers from information they need and are entitled to. It is about setting up a system that will allow for fraud, back door deals and a dishonest process.
Don't do what they expect you to do.
Stand up to keep your government's business public. Write and call your state senator now.
By MARTIN K. TILL
Publisher of The Express-Times, Easton.
So here we go.
Your local and state governments are hoping you, the taxpayers and voters, continue to not care.
They are banking on you not paying attention, and relying on your apathy.
They are going to play the "media" card and hope you don't start asking questions.
And if you do nothing, as they hope you do, they will create a system that will create more potential for theft, back door deals and corruption than you have ever seen. It is a very innocent proposal and "it will save the taxpayers money," they will claim.
Your government wants to take legal notices out of the public domain and put them on government Web sites. Your government leaders want to take the "public" out of public notices.
They want you to trust them to do the right thing. They want you to believe they will never miss a deadline for notice of a meeting you plan to attend. They want you to trust them to do your business in private.
The cynics will cry that newspapers are only concerned about this because we get paid for legal advertising. They will claim they are overpaying for the "public" service.
Don't buy it.
The cost of paying for legal notices in newspapers of general, audited circulation is less than half of one percent of local budgets.
How about this for an idea? Let's require our elected officials to stop taking perks and benefits.
Such cutbacks will more than make up for the money spent to inform you of the agendas of public officials.
And there will be no need to turn public agendas into private ones.
Legal notices are already being placed online, by newspapers. We already reach the public with the ads in the newspaper and by making them available on Web sites that are also rich with other content and already reach wide audiences with all sorts of important public information.
How will the "public" know what Web sites to search for government-sponsored legal advertising?
How will municipalities deal with the cost of running and maintaining a robust Web site?
How will people who live in rural areas and don't have Internet access gain this public information?
How will the thousands of people who don't have Internet access for economic or generational reasons gain access to this information?
Providing public notices online is already being done by the private sector, but government insists on trying to compete with it for reasons that do not serve the public good.
In Pennsylvania, Senate Bill 419 is about excluding taxpayers from information they need and are entitled to. It is about setting up a system that will allow for fraud, back door deals and a dishonest process.
Don't do what they expect you to do.
Stand up to keep your government's business public. Write and call your state senator now.
