Complete Story
11/08/2017
NC battle over newspaper notices rages on
Editorial from The Wilson Times
Businesses whose survival depends on adapting to market conditions are more innovative, more nimble - and thus more effective - than government when it comes to delivering consumer services.
That conservative canon was a permanent plank in the North Carolina Republican Party platform. Until last week.
State lawmakers decided that county, city and small-town officials can do a better job of informing the public than newspapers. They decided this with all available evidence pointing to the contrary, and after our state's Democratic governor called them out for growing government at the expense of private industry.
With the passage of Senate Bill 181 on Oct. 5, local governments in Guilford County now have the option of posting public notices on their own websites instead of placing legal advertisements in newspapers, and the county can compete with local papers by charging citizens and law firms a fee to post private legals online.
Sen. Trudy Wade, R-Guilford, revived her bid to change the rules in her home county yet again after her stand-alone bill was voted down in a House committee and her amended version of House Bill 205 earned Gov. Roy Cooper's veto stamp.
This time, she hijacked Senate Bill 181, which had been introduced to amend the Winston-Salem city charter. Sen. Paul A. Lowe Jr., D-Guilford, sponsored the initial bill, but he voted against Wade's hostile takeover of his legislation.
Wade's amended draft cleared the Senate 30-16 and squeaked by in a 58-57 House vote. Because SB 181 is a local bill - a tag applied to legislation affecting 15 or fewer counties - it cannot be vetoed.
