A fast-tracked bill that would allow governments to forgo publishing budgets, bids for services and other public records in newspapers and instead post them exclusively online triggered debate Tuesday among legislators, who were split on its potential impact on New Jersey’s media landscape.
According to northjersey.com, supporters framed it as a cost-saving measure for taxpayers in an age when digital news consumption is increasingly the norm. It was denounced by opponents as an assault on the state’s newspapers that would result in less investigative reporting, staffing cuts in newsrooms and reduced governmental transparency.
Some critics also questioned the timing of the bill, introduced on the same day as a separate measure to allow Governor Christie to cash in on a book deal while in office in exchange for raises for lawmakers’ staffs, judges, county prosecutors and other officials. One legislative source told The Record over the weekend that the legal notices bill was meant to punish New Jersey’s newspapers.
When a similar and unsuccessful version of the bill was introduced in 2011, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services said it could not determine the measure’s financial impact on local governments. Citing the New Jersey Press Association, it estimated that local governments spend approximately $20 million on legal notices annually, about 60 percent of which is reimbursed by private entities.
Spread across the state’s 565 municipalities, the average local government could save about $14,160 by publishing notices digitally, based on the numbers cited by the Office of Legislative Services.
But switching to new or expanded digital sites might mean greater costs for public governments, the report said.
Advertisement rates for legal notices are set by statute and have not risen since 1983.
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