Jeff Bergosh Blog: Big Media's Hair Will Be On FIRE if this Goes Through and Senate Passes HB 7049 (Local Government Legal Notice Reform)!

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Monday, March 7, 2022

Big Media's Hair Will Be On FIRE if this Goes Through and Senate Passes HB 7049 (Local Government Legal Notice Reform)!

The bill to allow local governments to bypass archaic laws and rules where legal notices must be placed in local newspapers is now actually moving in the Florida Senate.

The house passed the bill already by a large margin.

The senate has now put the bill into a rules committee hearing tomorrow. If it passes, it could go onto the Senate Floor for a vote before the end of the session Friday.

Collective media heads will explode if this passes---as they make a lot of cheddar off of counties and cities being FORCED to advertise with local papers ---while public notices could easily be made on the internet saving local governments MILLIONs of dollars yearly.

Ironically, as is the case locally, often times the local paper is openly hostile, overtly critical, and biased against the very government (s) that must pay to advertise with such media outlets. So passage of this bill (it's a long shot at this point) sure would be sweet!

Even though it is unlikely to pass the senate-- the media is terrified of this bill's passage---and what it would do to their print media's bottom line in the state.

All eyes on the senate this week. From the county's lobbyist in Tallahassee:

"In an 11th-hour move, the Senate has scheduled a committee meeting Tuesday to take up a House bill that would make changes in laws about publishing local-government legal notices. The House voted 78-39 last week to approve the bill, which has faced opposition from the newspaper industry. The Senate had not considered the proposal during the legislative session that started Jan. 11. But with the session scheduled to end Friday, the Senate posted notice of a Rules Committee meeting Tuesday to take up the issue (HB 7049). If it passes the Rules Committee, the bill could go before the full Senate. The bill, in part, would allow local governments to publish legal notices on publicly available county websites if it would be cheaper than publishing them in newspapers. The Rules Committee also will take up a House bill (HB 861) about terms related to medical specialties."