County not happy with $13,828 bill
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
This past December, I suggested Ohio House Bill 345 could save Ohio tax dollars. The legislation, introduced by five Ohio Democrats – Reps. Robert Hagan, Raymond Pryor, Tom Letson, Kenny Yuko and John Domenick – was and is worth consideration.
The bill has been assigned to the Local Government and Public Administration Committee. We should encourage Ohio lawmakers to give it all due consideration.
Granted, 2010 is an election year for the Ohio General Assembly. Typically, election years can mean one of two things: Nothing will get done or something bold just might get done.
House Bill 345 might just be part of something bold that will help save Ohio taxpayers money.
As written here in December, House Bill 345 permits certain “political subdivisions” to make Internet Web site publications in lieu of newspaper publication requirements as long as the political subdivision donates all funds that would otherwise be used to provide newspaper notices to a local food bank or food drive.
Earlier in 2009, the newspaper industry successfully campaigned against a proposal in the Ohio budget bill which would have allowed government entities to post small, condensed versions of their respective legal notices in newspapers, with references to the corresponding government Web site for the full text of the legal notice.
Newspaper ownership cried that Ohioans must be fully informed citizens and that legal notices must be published in local newspapers. (Newspaper ownership also likes its own definition of a newspaper.)
It’s time Ohio lawmakers rewrite state code on legal advertisements and tell the Fourth Estate lobbyists to go to hell.
Consider: For general election advertising in 2005 alone, a Wilmington newspaper (through its parent company) billed the Clinton County Board of Elections some $59,169.33 for legal advertising costs. This was among the most exorbitant expenses to taxpayers in the entire state that year. If you are interested in a copy of the Expenditure Report – Detail Activity from Jan. 1, 2006-June 12, 2006, Page 29 of 34, contact the Clinton County Board of Elections. It is public record, after all.
Now that that same Clinton County newspaper publisher has taken up shop in Highland County (following a “nationwide” search), our county auditor’s office has gotten a taste of the High Life, too.
Ask Highland County Auditor Bill Fawley about his recent invoice of almost $14,000 for publishing the annual delinquent land tax legal notices. The bill almost doubled last year’s invoice, according to the auditor. For three full pages and seven partial pages, that newspaper charged taxpayers in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, a whopping $13,828.40. Fawley told the HCP he may protest this expense. “It’s money the county doesn’t have,” he said.
Highland County’s unemployment rate has been at or near the top in the
entire state for months. Home foreclosures are increasing. County and city offices have struggled to balance their respective budgets. Food lines have been prevalent, almost reaching Great Depression levels. Yet on one invoice for one month, one county office is charged almost $14,000 of taxpayer money (at a rate of $1,604.40 for one full non-color page) for the publishing of legal advertising for, of all things, a listing of citizens who have not or cannot pay their respective property taxes. Absolutely amazing. How do they look the taxpayer in the eye?
The sad fact is that Ohio law does not permit free newspapers to publish legal ads. Nor does Ohio law permit a brief description of each legal, accompanied by an Internet link to the full text of the legal. Either option would benefit taxpayers. And both would serve the public.
As New Jersey lawmaker Joseph Cryan noted a few years ago, “Wait a minute here. We’re in the Internet age. Quite frankly to not have Internet access to legal notices that are government-sponsored seems absurd.”
Yes, it does.
Philadelphia journalist Sasha Issenberg points out, “34 bills in 19 states have recently challenged this status quo, ... that would effectively end states’ public-notice requirements. The irony is that, in other cases, public-information crusaders are pushing governments to use their Web sites as depots for self-disclosure of everything from campaign finance documents to information on government contracts,” Issenberg said. “By standing together to keep notices in their pages, newspapers are perpetuating public notices’ standing as a legal fiction.”
Why have some Ohio newspapers charged so much for legal advertising?
That’s easy. Because they can.
When taxpayers in a single Ohio county have to spend more than $1 each for every man, woman, child and newborn baby living there in the cost of legal advertisements for one election, as recently happened in Clinton County, it’s time to acknowledge that the system is broken.
Providing public information is one thing. Profiteering is quite another.
Granted, not all newspapers that publish legal advertising engage in such “creative” pricing. Many often publish legals at a discounted rate.
Still, in the age of online shopping, banking, news and entertainment, it’s
not too much of a stretch to expect online public notices.
House Bill 345 could be a small, first step in saving Ohio taxpayers a lot of money. Southern Ohio lawmakers such as Rep. David Daniels, Rep. Danny Bubp, and Sen. John Carey need to hear from those local officials who are entrusted to spend our tax dollars wisely. Legislators can fix this problem, but they’ll have to be willing to buck the system.
And from someone who has observed this issue from all sides, believe me, the print industry arguments that “the public must have this information in the newspaper” do not hold water. If such altruistic arguments were indeed valid, what’s preventing the newspapers from simply printing legal notices as a free public service or at a discounted rate?
With the majority of the region’s municipal and county budgets already making numerous budget cuts, it is past time to find an alternative to the current “forced purchase” of expensive legal advertisements.
Ohio lawmakers need to wake up. There are more cost-effective ways to inform the populace. Taxpayers have done enough.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
The bill has been assigned to the Local Government and Public Administration Committee. We should encourage Ohio lawmakers to give it all due consideration.
Granted, 2010 is an election year for the Ohio General Assembly. Typically, election years can mean one of two things: Nothing will get done or something bold just might get done.
House Bill 345 might just be part of something bold that will help save Ohio taxpayers money.
As written here in December, House Bill 345 permits certain “political subdivisions” to make Internet Web site publications in lieu of newspaper publication requirements as long as the political subdivision donates all funds that would otherwise be used to provide newspaper notices to a local food bank or food drive.
Earlier in 2009, the newspaper industry successfully campaigned against a proposal in the Ohio budget bill which would have allowed government entities to post small, condensed versions of their respective legal notices in newspapers, with references to the corresponding government Web site for the full text of the legal notice.
Newspaper ownership cried that Ohioans must be fully informed citizens and that legal notices must be published in local newspapers. (Newspaper ownership also likes its own definition of a newspaper.)
It’s time Ohio lawmakers rewrite state code on legal advertisements and tell the Fourth Estate lobbyists to go to hell.
Consider: For general election advertising in 2005 alone, a Wilmington newspaper (through its parent company) billed the Clinton County Board of Elections some $59,169.33 for legal advertising costs. This was among the most exorbitant expenses to taxpayers in the entire state that year. If you are interested in a copy of the Expenditure Report – Detail Activity from Jan. 1, 2006-June 12, 2006, Page 29 of 34, contact the Clinton County Board of Elections. It is public record, after all.
Now that that same Clinton County newspaper publisher has taken up shop in Highland County (following a “nationwide” search), our county auditor’s office has gotten a taste of the High Life, too.
Ask Highland County Auditor Bill Fawley about his recent invoice of almost $14,000 for publishing the annual delinquent land tax legal notices. The bill almost doubled last year’s invoice, according to the auditor. For three full pages and seven partial pages, that newspaper charged taxpayers in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, a whopping $13,828.40. Fawley told the HCP he may protest this expense. “It’s money the county doesn’t have,” he said.
Highland County’s unemployment rate has been at or near the top in the
entire state for months. Home foreclosures are increasing. County and city offices have struggled to balance their respective budgets. Food lines have been prevalent, almost reaching Great Depression levels. Yet on one invoice for one month, one county office is charged almost $14,000 of taxpayer money (at a rate of $1,604.40 for one full non-color page) for the publishing of legal advertising for, of all things, a listing of citizens who have not or cannot pay their respective property taxes. Absolutely amazing. How do they look the taxpayer in the eye?
The sad fact is that Ohio law does not permit free newspapers to publish legal ads. Nor does Ohio law permit a brief description of each legal, accompanied by an Internet link to the full text of the legal. Either option would benefit taxpayers. And both would serve the public.
As New Jersey lawmaker Joseph Cryan noted a few years ago, “Wait a minute here. We’re in the Internet age. Quite frankly to not have Internet access to legal notices that are government-sponsored seems absurd.”
Yes, it does.
Philadelphia journalist Sasha Issenberg points out, “34 bills in 19 states have recently challenged this status quo, ... that would effectively end states’ public-notice requirements. The irony is that, in other cases, public-information crusaders are pushing governments to use their Web sites as depots for self-disclosure of everything from campaign finance documents to information on government contracts,” Issenberg said. “By standing together to keep notices in their pages, newspapers are perpetuating public notices’ standing as a legal fiction.”
Why have some Ohio newspapers charged so much for legal advertising?
That’s easy. Because they can.
When taxpayers in a single Ohio county have to spend more than $1 each for every man, woman, child and newborn baby living there in the cost of legal advertisements for one election, as recently happened in Clinton County, it’s time to acknowledge that the system is broken.
Providing public information is one thing. Profiteering is quite another.
Granted, not all newspapers that publish legal advertising engage in such “creative” pricing. Many often publish legals at a discounted rate.
Still, in the age of online shopping, banking, news and entertainment, it’s
not too much of a stretch to expect online public notices.
House Bill 345 could be a small, first step in saving Ohio taxpayers a lot of money. Southern Ohio lawmakers such as Rep. David Daniels, Rep. Danny Bubp, and Sen. John Carey need to hear from those local officials who are entrusted to spend our tax dollars wisely. Legislators can fix this problem, but they’ll have to be willing to buck the system.
And from someone who has observed this issue from all sides, believe me, the print industry arguments that “the public must have this information in the newspaper” do not hold water. If such altruistic arguments were indeed valid, what’s preventing the newspapers from simply printing legal notices as a free public service or at a discounted rate?
With the majority of the region’s municipal and county budgets already making numerous budget cuts, it is past time to find an alternative to the current “forced purchase” of expensive legal advertisements.
Ohio lawmakers need to wake up. There are more cost-effective ways to inform the populace. Taxpayers have done enough.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]