N.C. Press Association Monopoly Protection Act Bill Has Been Filed by Award Winning Reps

The 2014 winner of the N.C Press Association Lassiter Award N.C. Senator Norman Sanderson has now filed a bill S#129 titled Legal Notices/Require Internet Publication. which needs to have a new title " N.C. Press Association Monopoly Protection Act.

When will our North Carolina General Assembly start to understand that this is the year 2015 not 1949 it is time to revamp all public notices save taxpayer money and let local and county government put these notices on their own web sites. Having a state law which states that public notices have to go through "paid subscribers" which means paid papers is ludicrous.

Let me give you an example right here in Guilford County. We have a weekly publication which is free not a paid paper like the local Greensboro News and Record called the North West Observer. This weekly has 100% distribution to every household in Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale. By law we make these 3 cities have to go through the Greensboro News and Record which has only a 20% distribution. So as you can see a weekly paper with 100% distribution should be the best place to have public notices to their constituents but by law they have to use the Greensboro News and Record at 20%, this makes no sense.

Hopefully we will se some drastic changes on the state level in regards to Public Notices but as we see from this past week with N.C. Senator Sanderson filed the bill above, we also have on the N.C. House side Rep. Marilyn Avila. She filed the same bill in the house side in H#156

 

 

 

a quote from Wilson Times on award

Rep. Marilyn Avila, a Wake County Republican, accepted the William C. Lassiter First Amendment award during the North Carolina Press Association's annual meeting last month

"The award -- which is among the highest honors the press association bestows -- is named for William C. Lassiter, an open-government attorney and former general counsel for the newspaper trade group.

"We don't give the William C. Lassiter First Amendment Award every year, and there's a reason for that," High said. "A true champion for the right to know doesn't come along every year. When someone does rise above the fray, we honor and celebrate that.""

So for the past 2 years the N.C. Press Association has bestowed this award to the 2 State Representatives who filed a bill which should be titled N.C. Press Association Monopoly Protection Act.

Time for drastic changes in our Public Notice laws and hopefully will see these 2 bills collect dust and never see the light of day.