By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX – Two Tempe lawmakers are among most Arizona Senate Democrats who reject the latest effort to wipe out the requirement for cities, towns and counties to publish — and pay for — notices in local papers.

Senators Mitzi Epstein and Lauren Kuby joined all but one Democrat in opposing an effort to end the notification process, which has become a perennial fight at the Arizona Legislature.

“I would love to have a year when we do not try to kill local newspapers in the Legislature,” Epstein said. “That’s what this bill would do.”

Epstein called the papers the “lifeblood” of local communities.

“They share everything from what are the local high schools doing in sports to what kinds of festivals can you attend, and what is the school board doing, what is the city council doing,” she said.

And all that, Epstein said, is supported at least in part by revenue from public notices.

For some lawmakers, however, it comes down to the question of what role, if any, the public has in keeping newspapers financially healthy.

At the heart of the issue are long-time requirements for public entities to publish various kinds of public notices, ranging from new ordinances to requests for bids.

All that, however, predates the internet and the ability of cities to put the same notices on their websites. And, they have argued, it does not make fiscal sense to keep spending money for notices that may be little read.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 18-9 for Senate Bill 1073, which would require public bodies to meet those notice requirements by placing them on the local entity’s own website.

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said Epstein’s argument misses the point: the money involved.

“I like local newspapers,” he said, calling them “quaint.” And he said the same description could be applied to candy stores and ice cream shops.

“But you know what? It’s not the job of the government to shore them up by forcing taxpayer money to buy their product when there are much better and cheaper outlets for the public notices,” Kavanagh said. “This is nothing more than a subsidy.”

Kuby, however, said letting a community meet its notice requirements by publishing on its own website is not sufficient to protect the public.

“Websites can be changed at a moment’s notice,” she said.

“They can be deleted. When you have a paper of record, you have a commitment to documenting the history of the time.”

And newspapers, when they publish a notice, also certify in writing that it was printed.

Kuby also denied any of this is a subsidy.

“We have to keep in mind that they’re vendors providing a service,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with them receiving funds for services they provide.”

Newspapers have conceded not everyone reads those public notices, especially in the age of the internet.

The Arizona Newspapers Association — now the Arizona Media Association — set up its own website where any public notice printed in any newspaper is also run at a single online site that can be searched.

Sen. Analise Ortiz of Phoenix was the only Democrat to side with Republicans in voting for the measure. It now goes to the House.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.