After a lengthy hearing this morning, the House State Affairs Committee has rejected legislation from Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, to end the requirement that government agencies publish legal notices, and instead allow agencies to just post those notices on their individual websites. “This is only intended for wise, efficient government,” Nate told the House State Affairs Committee. “Readership is declining, internet is increasing.”

The bill was backed by counties; Ada County Commissioner Rick Visser told the lawmakers, “Every year less and less people are buying newspapers. So far this year I have not read a newspaper once. The reality of news in print is that it is obsolete.”

Publishers of Idaho newspapers told the panel that actually newspaper readership is up – and that it now includes both online and in-print readership. All legal notices published in Idaho newspapers also are published on www.idahopublicnotices.com, a centralized, free, searchable statewide database of legal notices, at no additional cost to the agency posting the notice.

Matt Davison, publisher of the Idaho Press-Tribune, said, “Newspapers are absolutely not dying, we’re evolving. In fact in most newspapers across the state of Idaho, their audiences are larger than they have ever been. … We are everywhere anybody wants us - if you prefer to read us online, you can read us online,” or on social media, on a phone or in print. “I believe that the system today does an exceptional job of allowing the public the access they need.”

“This goes back to the fundamental due process rights of Americans that notice must be reasonably calculated to give affected persons as much notice as possible,” Jeremy Pisca, executive director of the Newspaper Association of Idaho, told the committee. “The newspapers provide a third-party, independent verification that notice was posted, and it’s there for all time’s sake as proof that notice was effectively delivered. It can’t be manipulated. It can’t be changed after the fact, it can’t be hacked.”

Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, said, “I think this is a great idea, it’s just that the time has not yet come. Centralization of notices in one place has its merit still for the consumer.”

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, supported the bill; she compared newspapers to film-processing firms that went out of business with the advent of digital photography. “To continue to pump money into a dinosaur, I see as a huge, just a subsidy,” she said. “It’s just government filling in the gap.”

Rep. Steven Harris’ motion to approve the bill, HB 420, failed on a 6-9 vote. Rep. Lynn Luker’s original motion to hold it in committee then passed, 10-5.

Here’s how the vote broke down:

On Harris’ motion to approve the bill:

Voting yes: Reps. Monks, Palmer, Harris, Giddings, Zito and Scott

Voting no: Reps. Loertscher, Luker, Crane, Barbieri, Holtzclaw, Armstrong, Manwaring, Smith and Kloc(Tway).

On Luker’s motion to hold the bill in committee, killing it:

Voting yes: Reps. Loertscher, Monks, Luker, Barbieri, Holtzclaw, Armstrong, Crane, Manwaring, Smith, and Kloc(Tway).

Voting no: Reps. Palmer, Harris, Giddings, Zito and Scott.

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