Like a bad penny, legislation to hide public notices from the public is back in NC General Assembly.
House members have filed separate bills that would allow 14 counties in the Piedmont and mountains and 12 counties in Eastern North Carolina to run public notices on their websites instead of in newspapers.
Even though Macon County is not one of the 26 counties named in the bills – our neighbors in Swain and Jackson counties are included – this is an issue that should concern every Macon resident.
This has been a bad idea over the past 10 years, and it is arguably a worse idea today when a public health crisis calls for greater transparency, not less.
Why are public notices important? Public notices catalog government actions in cases of competitive bidding, rezoning, budget hearings, auctions, property transfers, delinquent tax notices, street name changes and more. They alert the public to disruptive land-use changes for things like sewer plants, asphalt plants and garbage incinerators. They tell the public in advance about proposals for traffic-clogging high-density developments and plans for wider roads or new roads.
Instead of eroding the public’s right to know, county commissioners and city council members should be providing as much information as possible to all their constituents, including the many who have no internet access or poor service.
Current law ensures that public notices reach the largest possible cross-section of the community.
According to a recent study, 30 percent of North Carolinians either live where there is no internet service, they can’t afford it, or won’t read online even if available. These issues are amplified in rural communities like ours.
Newspapers have proved to be a lifeline of community news vital to the public during the pandemic; instead of killing the messengers, legislators should welcome the viital line of communication to the local community that newspapers provide.
If newspapers didn’t play this role, many vulnerable taxpayers would be left in the dark about meetings of local governments that their tax dollars pay for, as well as the decisions and taxes to which those meetings might lead.
This is not about cost savings for the counties. This is about hiding the business of the people.