The Public Notice Resource Center, which focuses on keeping public notice and legal ads in newspapers, declared 2019 a “very good year” for public notice with virtually no erosion in government requirements for publications.
PNRC, which tracked some 360 public notice-related bills introduced during the year, noted that, of the 80 pieces of legislation passed, most actually added new notice requirements.
“Moreover, the only (new law) that will have an arguably significant impact on a state’s public notice statute — an eligibility law in Virginia — was supported by that state’s press association,” the center noted in its monthly newsletter.
PNRC said none of the “real stinkers,” bills that would have removed most public notice from newspapers, even made it out of committee.
“The only close call this year came in Indiana, where a bill that would have moved mortgage foreclosure notices to municipal websites passed the House before it was killed in the Senate,” PNRC said.
An important metric PNRC uses to gauge the general health of newspaper notice in the state capitals “turned sharply positive” in 2019, the center said.
“Bills that would add a newspaper notice in a specific category — for instance, in connection with newly mandated public hearings or financial reports — outnumbered those that would eliminate a category of notice by approximately three to one,” PNRC said. “That compares favorably to the 2018 ratio of roughly 1.5 to 1.”
For the complete report from PNRC, go to its website, www.pnrc.net.
