Tristan Wood
The House passed a bill Wednesday that would roll back last year’s deal on legal notices, sending the matter to the Senate.
HB 7049, sponsored by Republican Rep. Randy Fine, passed the House 78-39. The legislation would give governmental agencies the option to publish legal notices on a publicly accessible website of a county the notice takes place in instead of in a print newspaper. The bill alters legislation passed last year.
Last year’s bill removed a long-standing rule requiring notices to exclusively appear in subscription-rich newspapers and allowed notices to be published online in addition to a local newspaper. The 2021 bill sought to remove the newspaper requirement altogether. However, lawmakers and the Florida Press Association hammered out a deal to allow governments to continue posting notices in newspapers as well as on the Florida Press Association website.
This year’s bill undoes that requirement, allowing notices to be published on “a publicly accessible website of a county.”
Fine has sponsored public notices bills for the past few Legislative Sessions, arguing the newspaper publishing requirement was essentially a handout to newspapers because legal notices provide papers with a significant amount of advertising revenue.
Democratic Rep. Ben Diamond said during debate that he was surprised to hear the bill again after the legislation last year that was passed 105 to 9 in the House. Fine has brought this issue before the Legislature for four straight years.
“It’s déjà vu all over again in the Florida Legislature as we hear yet again Randy Fine’s legal notice bill,” Diamond said.
Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith said the bill is a clear assault on the press.
“This bill is nothing more than an attack on the press and on our local newspapers. It serves no other purpose than to pursue a vendetta against the media,” Smith said
Fine said the bill was not an attack on the press, but instead removed government subsidies from local newspapers. He said the bill would keep local newspapers from being influenced by local government.
“Newspapers that are reliant on revenue from the government are not free press,” Fine said.
Addressing why he was pursuing the issue again this year, he said he never agreed to a compromise and wanted to pursue the entire piece of legislation he wanted passed last year.
“Half a loaf is better than no loaf, and that is what passed last year,” Fine said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t go out and try to get the other half next year.”
The bill doesn’t leave newspaper readers or those with limited internet connection completely out to dry. It requires local governments and governmental agencies to buy an ad once a year in a publication “delivered to all residents and property owners throughout the government’s jurisdiction” letting them know that they can register to receive public notices by email or mail. They will then send legally required advertisements and public notices to all those that opt in to receiving them in that way.
Additionally, the bill requires a governmental agency located in a county with a population fewer than 160,000 to first hold a public hearing to determine that its residents have sufficient access to the internet before transitioning their notices to the county website.
Fine concluded his remarks by adding that the House will make the decision on whether they will see the bill again.
“I can promise you this, if you pass this bill, you won’t be seeing it again next year,” he said.
The bill now needs Senate approval to become law.
