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Government of, by and for the people loses potency when government makes it more difficult for the people to find out what it’s doing, when and where.
That is exactly the effect that a bill before the state House will have if it becomes law.
Under the pretext of modernizing public notice procedure for government meetings and other actions, House Bill 1869 would allow public bodies in Illinois to post their required notices online only. Public notices must now be published in local newspapers. The newspapers, following a 2010 law that they supported, publish the notices in print and online, at a site operated by the Illinois Press Association.
Backers of the bill promote it as a money-saving initiative. It would allow local governments, school districts and various other public bodies to avoid paying for print publication.
But there remains a significant segment of the population that does not have Internet access. The older and less wealthy you are, the less likely you are to be a regular Internet user.
The bill would not completely excuse governments from publishing notices in print publications. They’d still have to publish the fact that they have issued a public notice. The ad in the local newspaper would give a website address for readers to investigate.
Local newspapers and their websites have a major advantage in keeping taxpayers informed about government activities. They attract audiences that tend to be specific to their area and, consequently, are more likely to be interested in the goings-on of the school board or municipal council.
With nearly 7,000 taxing bodies, Illinois tops the nation in its number of government entities (it leads runner-up Pennsylvania by more than 2,100). If lawmakers want to save taxpayers money, they ought to look at reducing that number rather than making it easier for those bodies to operate without public scrutiny.
— GateHouse News Service
Government of, by and for the people loses potency when government makes it more difficult for the people to find out what it’s doing, when and where.
That is exactly the effect that a bill before the state House will have if it becomes law.
Under the pretext of modernizing public notice procedure for government meetings and other actions, House Bill 1869 would allow public bodies in Illinois to post their required notices online only. Public notices must now be published in local newspapers. The newspapers, following a 2010 law that they supported, publish the notices in print and online, at a site operated by the Illinois Press Association.
Backers of the bill promote it as a money-saving initiative. It would allow local governments, school districts and various other public bodies to avoid paying for print publication.
But there remains a significant segment of the population that does not have Internet access. The older and less wealthy you are, the less likely you are to be a regular Internet user.
The bill would not completely excuse governments from publishing notices in print publications. They’d still have to publish the fact that they have issued a public notice. The ad in the local newspaper would give a website address for readers to investigate.
Local newspapers and their websites have a major advantage in keeping taxpayers informed about government activities. They attract audiences that tend to be specific to their area and, consequently, are more likely to be interested in the goings-on of the school board or municipal council.
With nearly 7,000 taxing bodies, Illinois tops the nation in its number of government entities (it leads runner-up Pennsylvania by more than 2,100). If lawmakers want to save taxpayers money, they ought to look at reducing that number rather than making it easier for those bodies to operate without public scrutiny.
— GateHouse News Service
