Do you want to know how government spends your money?

Do you want to know if the property next door is up for a zoning change to adult entertainment?

Do you want an equal opportunity to bid on providing supplies or services to your city or school?

Do you want to know if the client who owes you money is delinquent on his taxes?

One way you learn these things is through public notices. Now, you will have greater access to this information thanks to Governor John Kasich. When the governor signed the biennial budget into law in June, it contained a provision to allow free circulation newspapers, like The Press, to legally publish public notices. That provision goes into effect this week.

The new law ends a 21-year-old battle by the free-paper industry to make such notices more readily available to you. It also helps local government cut costs in these economically-dark times.

Prior to the change, only paid circulation papers could legitimately carry public notices. The Press has always published some legal notices, but these were placed by civic minded public officials who also placed notices in paid papers. They added The Press for our larger local distribution. For example, The Press out-delivers a week day edition of The Blade more than two to one in our area.

The new law will give public officials more flexibility and a new tool to control costs. There are legitimate reasons to run a public notice in regional dailies like The Blade, The Sentinel-Tribune or the News-Herald. A help-wanted ad for a city administrator would be one. However, for a proposed zoning change or a school budget, a local free paper that reaches more residents who would be directly affected is a better choice.

The new law stops a move by some public officials to place legal advertising solely on government web sites, which would cut costs, but which would also reduce citizen access. This is a concern nationwide. According to a recent study by the University of Southern California entitled Public Policy and Funding the News, 153 proposals to change public notice laws were introduced in 40 states in 2008 alone.

The case to reduce government costs is a legitimate one. Some monopoly newspapers have charged a much higher rate for public notices than the rate they charge retail clients. The study concludes that in the state of Pennsylvania, for example, some $25 million is spent on legal advertising, so the savings of publishing on-line can be substantial.

The new law should help rein in these costs by allowing free papers to bid on public notices and by its requirement that a newspaper charge a rate “no greater than the lowest classified advertising rate.”

It’s ironic that, up to this week, the greatest impediment for the placement of public notices in a free paper was the paid newspaper industry. In the mid 1990s I was a board member of the Community Papers of Ohio and West Virginia. We funded a number of efforts to get a bill passed that would redefine the term “newspaper of general circulation.” Back then, The Press did not meet the legal definition of a “newspaper” for the placement of public notices. We were called a “publication.” In fact, up to a few years ago, free newspapers were not allowed to join the Ohio Newspaper Association.

To be fair, the paid newspapers had a legitimate concern. Could government hide controversial public notices in a free paper with little distribution and even less readership?

The law contains five provisions to assure that doesn’t happen. To that end, the newspaper has to:

1) Be published at least weekly and continuously for three years prior to placement of public notices;

2) Be printed in English, using standard printing methods and not less than eight pages broadsheet or 16 pages tabloid;

3) Contain at least 25 percent editorial content which includes local news;

4) Be audited yearly by an independent source;

5) Be able to add to its distribution list.

The Press meets all these requirements.

Public notices have been an integral part of civic life since early civilization when they were posted in public squares. The first newspaper to start publishing them was The Oxford Gazette in 1665. In 1789, the first congress of the United States required all bills and congressional votes be published in three newspapers. This new law continues the tradition of making public notices more public.

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