Once again, there is a bill being considered in the Maine Legislature to eliminate public notices in newspapers. Once again, Maine newspapers will fight this bill, with a public hearing for LD 2042 scheduled on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. in room 214 of the Cross Building. The bill, LD 2042, "An Act to Eliminate the Requirement for Municipalities to Provide Public Notice in a Newspaper," https://tinyurl.com/depafasd, must be defeated.

The following statement from the Maine Press Association was issued this week: If we do not act swiftly, this legislation will permanently weaken both public oversight and the sustainability of local journalism.

How to testify: https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/Documents/Testifying 

To submit testimony electronically: https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/ 

Our local representative, Holly Stover, has testified before on the importance of keeping public notices printed in newspapers and we expect her to do it again. We invite our readers to testify on behalf of our newspaper and others in Maine.

Our newspaper has had problems finding public notices on area town websites. Either they are not there – due to a staff shortage – or not kept up to date. One of our reporters, Fritz Freudenberger, states that “Visitors have to go through layers of links in outdated formats to find relevant information.”

“Public notices are the backbone of most small newspapers. Take the time to read about the corruption that tends to take place in communities that do not have printed public notices,” stated another Boothbay Register employee, Sarah Morley.

To quote Maine Press Association again:

“Public notices are a cornerstone of transparent government, public accountability, and an informed citizenry. Publishing these notices in newspapers ensures permanent public record, broad accessibility across generations, and independent third-party verification.

“This bill represents a direct threat to government transparency, public access to critical legal and civic information, the financial stability of local and independent newspapers, and the historic legal record newspapers provide to communities.

“The bill is being positioned as an ‘alternative way’ to publish public notices, but in reality, it reduces government transparency and shifts public information into fragmented digital spaces that exclude rural residents, older populations, and anyone without reliable broadband access.”

Once public notices leave newspapers, history shows they rarely return.