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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 29, 2024 03:49 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Jason Ortitay |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Flexibility in Advertising/Notices |
| Posted:January 17, 2023 09:31 AM From:Representative Jason Ortitay and Rep. Michael H. Schlossberg To:All House members Subject:Flexibility in Advertising/Notices In the near future, we plan to introduce legislation that would modernize the advertising and public notice requirements applicable to local governments such as counties, municipalities, and school districts. Current law requires local governments to publish a notice of various board and committee meetings, bidding requirements for certain purchases and contracts, legal notices, and official advertisements in printed newspapers of general circulation. In recent years, printed newspapers have been sharply reducing or eliminating regular publishing and increasing advertising costs. As a result, local governments are finding it difficult and expensive to comply with the archaic advertising requirements which date back to 1976. This requirement has become expensive and inefficient, and it was created before the Internet changed the ways that people receive information. Today, local government officials have to ask which forms of communication are most likely to reach their constituents in a timely and cost-effective manner. As a growing number of people access information through computers, smartphones, tablets, and laptops, the answer is rapidly moving away from printed newspapers. Local government officials fully support the need to keep their communities informed of events and operations, and they know that public engagement is necessary to have an effective system of open government. That is why we are introducing legislation that would provide flexibility in meeting these requirements in a way that will improve efficiency, increase readership and reduce costs. This proposal allows local governments to advertise public notices either electronically or in printed format by choosing from a menu of options in an effort to reach more of their constituents. Please join us in cosponsoring this legislation to allow local governments to be more responsible with taxpayer dollars and reach broader audiences in a manner that fits the current times |
Introduced as HB2103