Opinion: What's best use of Internet for government information?
June 18, 2009
OPINION
Update from the Capitol
By Deb Musselman
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association
Director of Government Affairs
We told you several weeks ago about the push by local government organizations to place public notices into shoppers and pennysavers – advertising products that call themselves community papers of mass dissemination.
Most recently, PNA spokesmen Frank Gothie, Publisher of the Delaware County Daily and Sunday Times, and Harold Miller, President of Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., appeared on June 9 before the House Commerce Committee to explain our perspective on House Bill 795, the companion bill Senate Bill 419, Internet legislation now in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Prime Sponsor Rep. Barb McIlvaine Smith (D., Chester) took part in a sometimes lively discussion throughout the ninety-minute hearing.
Legislators are clearly troubled by continued news reports about the state of the newspaper industry, but our state’s fiscal crisis and local governments’ complaints about this “unfunded mandate” have gotten their attention, too. With state government generally enchanted with the Internet, the significance of public notices in a democracy seems to strike some as almost an afterthought.
To our minds, the real question should be this: what is the best use of the Internet for access to government information? Sitting at a computer pulling up contract information on a searchable database certainly beats pouring through file cabinets or filling out open records request forms, and that’s why we support bills expanding on that provision of the new Right to Know Law. But as one freshman Rep, Rick Mirabito (D., Lycoming) put it at last week’s hearing, referring to universal Internet access – “The day may be coming, but it’s certainly not here yet.”
Local government groups seem all too willing to ignore the 30-40 percent of Pennsylvania’s population that is not online – either because they can’t afford it or they’re not interested. Go to the library, they say. Really? When library funding is threatened across the state? And let’s be realistic: economically disadvantaged households that can’t afford a computer may not have the time or resources to visit a library in order to monitor their government. What happens to their due process, when their neighborhood is being rezoned, essentially behind their backs? “Oh, sorry, it was on our website, you could have paid for a paper copy to be mailed out to you.”
And let’s talk about technology: hacking and server crashes continue to challenge society’s every-expanding population of web masters and technicians. Does anyone seriously believe that a real Internet website with archives and search ability can be developed and maintained on current municipal budgets? It seems to us that if local governments really believed what they say about putting notices on the Internet – that it would broaden access to information at minimal cost, and that’s what they want – they’d be posting notices on their websites right now. That’s the exception, however, not the norm.
Given our experience when we developed and then rolled out MyPublicNotices, we’re convinced that local budget expenditures on their websites would dwarf their current public notice costs. (And don’t forget, those bills from any county-based legal journals would still roll in, under all these proposals.) Newspapers have been 21st century media companies for the past ten years, at least, and readership continues to thrive, with 80 percent of households getting their news from a newspaper or its website every week.
PNA’s compromise requiring municipal advertisers to get a paper’s lowest commercial rate offers concrete relief to strapped budgets. Newspapers that circulate in areas where broadband services are available need to upload to MyPublicNotices to satisfy the demand for online access by dedicated Internet users, while print publication preserves the broad access to government that’s an essential component of democratic participation. Finally, it protects the due process rights of voters whose lives are impacted by government decisions such as zoning revisions and school budgets.
It’s the legislator’s job to weigh competing positions and develop a worthwhile and durable solution – usually, one that involves give and take by all parties. At this point in the legislative calendar, it’s a day by day process, but all the bills are still in committee. We’re keeping up the fight at the Capitol, of course, and will keep you current as new developments occur. As always, feel free to write or call me with any questions.
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association attorneys provide member newspapers with advice on the state's open records and open meetings laws, and maintain PNA Legal, a blog dedicated to discussing legal and legislative issues impacting the news media in Pennsylvania.
Update from the Capitol
By Deb Musselman
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association
Director of Government Affairs
We told you several weeks ago about the push by local government organizations to place public notices into shoppers and pennysavers – advertising products that call themselves community papers of mass dissemination.
Most recently, PNA spokesmen Frank Gothie, Publisher of the Delaware County Daily and Sunday Times, and Harold Miller, President of Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., appeared on June 9 before the House Commerce Committee to explain our perspective on House Bill 795, the companion bill Senate Bill 419, Internet legislation now in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Prime Sponsor Rep. Barb McIlvaine Smith (D., Chester) took part in a sometimes lively discussion throughout the ninety-minute hearing.
Legislators are clearly troubled by continued news reports about the state of the newspaper industry, but our state’s fiscal crisis and local governments’ complaints about this “unfunded mandate” have gotten their attention, too. With state government generally enchanted with the Internet, the significance of public notices in a democracy seems to strike some as almost an afterthought.
To our minds, the real question should be this: what is the best use of the Internet for access to government information? Sitting at a computer pulling up contract information on a searchable database certainly beats pouring through file cabinets or filling out open records request forms, and that’s why we support bills expanding on that provision of the new Right to Know Law. But as one freshman Rep, Rick Mirabito (D., Lycoming) put it at last week’s hearing, referring to universal Internet access – “The day may be coming, but it’s certainly not here yet.”
Local government groups seem all too willing to ignore the 30-40 percent of Pennsylvania’s population that is not online – either because they can’t afford it or they’re not interested. Go to the library, they say. Really? When library funding is threatened across the state? And let’s be realistic: economically disadvantaged households that can’t afford a computer may not have the time or resources to visit a library in order to monitor their government. What happens to their due process, when their neighborhood is being rezoned, essentially behind their backs? “Oh, sorry, it was on our website, you could have paid for a paper copy to be mailed out to you.”
And let’s talk about technology: hacking and server crashes continue to challenge society’s every-expanding population of web masters and technicians. Does anyone seriously believe that a real Internet website with archives and search ability can be developed and maintained on current municipal budgets? It seems to us that if local governments really believed what they say about putting notices on the Internet – that it would broaden access to information at minimal cost, and that’s what they want – they’d be posting notices on their websites right now. That’s the exception, however, not the norm.
Given our experience when we developed and then rolled out MyPublicNotices, we’re convinced that local budget expenditures on their websites would dwarf their current public notice costs. (And don’t forget, those bills from any county-based legal journals would still roll in, under all these proposals.) Newspapers have been 21st century media companies for the past ten years, at least, and readership continues to thrive, with 80 percent of households getting their news from a newspaper or its website every week.
PNA’s compromise requiring municipal advertisers to get a paper’s lowest commercial rate offers concrete relief to strapped budgets. Newspapers that circulate in areas where broadband services are available need to upload to MyPublicNotices to satisfy the demand for online access by dedicated Internet users, while print publication preserves the broad access to government that’s an essential component of democratic participation. Finally, it protects the due process rights of voters whose lives are impacted by government decisions such as zoning revisions and school budgets.
It’s the legislator’s job to weigh competing positions and develop a worthwhile and durable solution – usually, one that involves give and take by all parties. At this point in the legislative calendar, it’s a day by day process, but all the bills are still in committee. We’re keeping up the fight at the Capitol, of course, and will keep you current as new developments occur. As always, feel free to write or call me with any questions.
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association attorneys provide member newspapers with advice on the state's open records and open meetings laws, and maintain PNA Legal, a blog dedicated to discussing legal and legislative issues impacting the news media in Pennsylvania.
