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A ‘zombie idea’ that needs to die

3 min read
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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman sometimes rails about what he calls “zombie ideas” – notions that, in his estimation, have been proven unfeasible, outmoded or just plain bad, but keep coming back again and again and again, impervious to attempts to kill them off once and for all.

Those zombie ideas, alas, are not confined to Capitol Hill or Wall Street. For a prime example of a zombie idea, look no further than the latest effort in Harrisburg to take public notices out of newspapers.

Legislators have tried before to relieve local governments of their obligation to place public notices in a newspaper of general circulation within their communities, but their efforts have withered on the vine. Apparently undaunted, state Sen. John Eichelberger, a Blair County Republican, has introduced a bill that would set up a statewide public notice website, and it has been taken up by the Senate’s local government committee. Eichelberger argues that a state-run site would make notices about zoning issues, tax increases, public hearings, sheriff sales and other subjects more accessible. A kind of one-stop shop, if you will.

There are a couple of problems with this argument, however. First, Eichelberger assumes that everyone has access to the web and can easily navigate it. Though it may seem like everyone is glued to Facebook or BuzzFeed, almost 30 percent of Pennsylvania’s residents do not use the internet, as per a 2015 study by the U.S. Commerce Department. There is also the assumption that citizens will habitually turn to websites operated by state or local governments which, other studies have shown, generate precious little web traffic. Newspapers, whether in their print or online forms, are without question seen by members of the communities they serve. The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association found that 82 percent of adults in the commonwealth read a newspaper at least once a week. Along with appearing in print, newspapers have also been uploading the notices to their websites.

What makes Eichelberger’s proposal even more perplexing is the fact that newspapers across the state have already established a public notice database at www.publicnoticepa.com. A visit on Monday to this site, which is searchable by city, county, publication and date range, found notices about estate claims, foreclosures and meetings. This is being offered by media outlets at no cost to taxpayers. Eichelberger’s proposed website, conversely, would come with startup and maintenance costs, and would have fees assessed to local governments. How would the state offer something better than what newspapers are already providing?

Then, there is the question of transparency. Newspapers have been watchdogs of local government for decades, and keeping public notices in newspapers ensures transparency. Left to state government, the risk of secrecy, mismanagement and abuse creeps up.

Admittedly, the Observer-Reporter and other newspapers have a dog in this fight, since we receive revenue from public notices. However, newspapers print the notices at the lowest rates available, and allow them to be seen by the broadest possible audience.

Groups as diverse as AARP and the environmental group PennFuture have weighed in against this proposal. Lawmakers should heed their wisdom and kill off this zombie idea once and for all.

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