It may have a new name, but the legislation that would essentially leave many citizens in the dark when it comes to how local governments are spending their money has the same damaging impact on transparency.

Late last year, in the lame-duck session, legislators in Lansing pushed hard to pass House Bill 5550 but it ultimately didn’t go anywhere before the session ended. Now the same individuals are back pushing what is called House Bill 4183, using the same flawed logic and misleading position that this is somehow about saving money.

That may be a side effect — and at this point that is far from proven as no comprehensive analysis has even been considered – but the only known commodity is this will be to transparency what spray paint is to a gorgeous bay window.

As I wrote a few moths ago, the bill essentially predicts newspapers will have gone the way of the dodo bird in 10 years and eliminates public notices from being published entirely, with government websites becoming the sole access point for this information. While public notices may not be looked at as the most exciting reading material, they are vitally important. Typical notices include lots of crucial information about how government entities are spending their money, tax increases, property seizures, bidding opportunities for local businesses, public meetings, public health and safety issues.

Creating a uniform and more streamlined approach for publishing public notices is an admirable cause, but this proposal has lots of unanswered questions that hinge on whether or not the information will be truly accessible and whether or not our governments will be accountable.

Will citizens actually visit government websites to stay informed? How will citizens know information is online and when they look? How many local governments will be able to create or maintain websites with updated content that will work with ever-changing technology? How many citizens will be left in the dark entirely because they don’t have online access?

Bill Speer, president of the Michigan Press Association and the publisher of the Alpena News, summed it up well in a recent editorial.

“While the technology of information delivery continues to evolve and change, the responsibility of government to inform its constituents has not, and newspapers have adapted to the information age by developing websites that are visited far more often than governmental websites,” he wrote. “Newspapers, as private businesses, have an incentive to provide their products and services at the lowest possible cost.

“It’s vital to protecting taxpayers rights that Michigan government’s maintain an independent third party platform for these notices to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt what notice was provided. With notices printed in a newspaper, if there are challenges, taxpayers would have an authentic record to use in court to force government to fix problems. Web-only posting would allow government to cover up mistakes because the Internet is constantly changing (as are the platforms used to provide information) and can be corrupted by viruses and other tools used by hackers. The security of notices in a print publication combined with the online reach and accessibility of local newspaper websites will provide the public with the most secure and dynamic notice possible at competitive and reasonable cost.”

Those lobbying in favor of this change seem oblivious to the facts that show newspapers are still the most affordable and valuable way to reach citizens.

According to American Opinion Research:

• Newspapers are the number one source for local/community news.

• Seventy percent of Michigan adults read a print newspaper on an average Sunday.

• Eighty-seven percent of Michigan Adults (6.7 million) read a Michigan newspaper during an average seven-day period.

• Ninety-five percent of 18-29 year-olds read a newspaper each week in Michigan.

A closed, secretive government isn’t good for anyone other than the politicians.

We all need to make sure we tell our elected officials how we feel about House Bill 4183 and being kept in the dark to possibly save a few pennies.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.