Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Bill reduces public notice--Northwest Herald |

House Bill 1869

Instead of paying tax dollars to print public notices about government activities, governments could skip that requirement if they agree to post the full public notices on their own websites. In addition, a small ad would have to be printed in the paper to announce the website address where public notices would be posted.

stealthy assault on open government under the guise of saving money. Newspapers, of course, have a vested interest in this matter: The bill would take a slight amount of revenue from most newspapers.

But for decades, public notices have been printed in newspapers for a good reason: to provide the greatest verifiable public exposure for the money spent. (Public notices are billed at a discounted ad rate, by the way).

For people who use the Internet, Illinois newspapers (including this one) already offer a free, online public notice service. Visit http://www.publicnoticeillinois.com/ to search for public notices from this community and many others.

Click on the following for more details:  Northwest Herald | Bill reduces public notice

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