A bill that originated in the Mississippi Senate would give local government entities the option of running their legal notices on a government sponsored web-site and would no longer require that they be published in local community newspapers. A companion bill is going though the House with the same goal.
If passed in its existing format the bill would go into effect in July 2020. We do not feel that this is good for communities and their knowledge of what their local governments are doing and of how they are spending their funds.
What these legislative bodies may not realize is that this service already exists and has been in operation for years through the Mississippi Press Association. The site to view local notices along with those across the state is mspublicnotices.org. This paper, along with most other papers, posts their legal notices each week with the Press Association and no one is charged for this service; it is part of the services that are offered through your local newspaper.
If the legislature passes these bills, they will literally create a whole new level of government to manage something that is already being done for them. Imagine the task of trying assimilate all the data from various organizations around the state and then managing that data in a workable fashion.
Another issue is the lack of dependable internet service in rural parts of the state. That means people in those areas may never know what is being proposed and being done by government entities.
A recent survey by the Mississippi Press Association shows that seven of ten Mississippi households read their local newspapers, and over half of the respondents recall reading public notices in their newspaper.
It would be unfair not to mention that newspapers are compensated for publishing legal notices at a rate which is approximately one-third of the open rate, which is established by the Mississippi Legislature.
Our main concern, though, is transparency. Without required notice to the community our local governments have no one to be accountable to.
What would happen if voting places changed and no one is given notice? What would happen if the local government adopted new ordinances and no one is given notice? These are just the surface problems. This change would go to the very root of government accountability. While in most agencies this would not be an issue, what if these agencies were not good stewards?
