On Friday, the Wyoming Senate defeated a bill that would have allowed local governments to stop publishing their minutes, salaries, ordinances and other information in newspapers.

“I’m not quite there with the notion that we pull the funding that makes sure that we get information out to our public,” said Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper.

Senate File 17, sponsored by the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, would have allowed cities, towns, counties and school districts to move their public notices from the pages of local newspapers to those entities’ websites. It failed on a 20-9 vote on its third reading. Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, joined the majority in voting against the bill while Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, supported it.

The bill was brought to the floor by Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, who argued the move online was essential as many local governments face budget cuts. Nethercott said counties spend anywhere from $11,000 to $42,000 a year, with Teton County being an outlier at $101,000 annually. Park County, she said, spends $22,000 a year to have its minutes and salaries published in both the Powell Tribune and the Cody Enterprise.

In January, Park County Clerk Colleen Renner suggested that commissioners publish the notices in just one of the papers, thinking it would cut the county’s costs in half. Renner and the board later dropped that idea after learning the change would save little: the Tribune and Enterprise have long charged the county half-price so those particular notices can be carried in both papers.

Commissioners also discussed the general requirement to publish minutes and other notices in newspapers.

While wanting to find ways to save money, Commission Chairman Lee Livingston said there are “a lot of folks who get their information from the paper” and Commissioner Joe Tilden expressed reluctance about something that could reduce transparency and communication with the public.

However, Commissioner Lloyd Thiel said there’s “no question” that social media is becoming increasingly popular as a source of information.

“There’s questions already out there as to whether we can post these on a website and ... the people that are interested will find them,” Thiel said at a Jan. 12 meeting.

Tilden countered that there are many local residents with limited internet access or no access at all. That, he said, proved a problem as public health officials have sought to sign older residents up for COVID-19 vaccines through the county’s website. Tilden said he thought the access issue was one of the reasons why the Legislature has left the publication requirement in place.

However, Commissioner Scott Mangold noted people can use the internet at the county’s libraries.

“If you got the money, you can of course, buy a newspaper … or subscribe online, but you gotta actually pay a little bit more for this information,” he said. (While the Tribune has a paywall around much of its online content, legal notices are freely available and a subscription is not required to read them.)

Mangold, who co-owns KPOW 1260AM, also pointed out that radio broadcasts are freely available to the public.

“Just send them a press release and they’ll read it. That’s free,” Mangold said, adding, “I think we’ve got to look at some ways to save money.”

During last week’s floor debate on Senate File 17, Sen. Nethercott said she had asked the Wyoming Press Association  whether radio stations could be brought into the legal notice discussion. She suggested the stations could read minutes aloud, helping those who can’t read or can’t afford a newspaper. However, Nethercott said the newspaper group rejected the radio idea — and she contended that’s because of the money that papers are receiving.

While some legislators focused on how the state’s newspapers would be impacted if notices moved online, Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper, said the bill was, first and foremost, about getting important public information to Wyoming’s citizens.

“It was disturbing to me that this bill has become an argument about supporting our newspapers and local communities,” Perkins said. “To me, that’s not the right argument and not the right consideration. ... I hope that as we consider this, your vote is not about whether or not this money goes to support newspapers. … This is really an issue about giving notice, and I hope we focus on that and not about the financial health of our newspapers.”

Sen. Kost said while the state should continue to discuss the possibility of moving public notices online, now was not the time to make the move.

“I really feel like … maybe we start talking about it,” Kost said. “But right now, it’s imperative that we … respect those older people. … Let’s honor them by allowing them to sit down with that cup of coffee and read those minutes or whatever else they need to read.”

Sens. Bo Biteman, R-Parkman, and Dave Kinskey, R-Sheridan, were among those who voted against the bill. Biteman said many local government websites simply weren’t ready to distribute important public notice information.

“I think it would have helped the case and the cause of the argument … if they would have had their websites up-to-date with the minutes on there and showed us what they could do,” Biteman said. “But if you go and look across the state right now at these county and city and local government websites, the information is sparse at best, outdated and sometimes nonexistent … So I think they really could have shown us what they could do, and I don’t think they’re quite ready for that yet.”

During a previous discussion on the bill, Kinskey said publication spending made up roughly 0.12% of the average annual budget for counties and 0.17% for cities and towns. For that relatively small investment, the newspapers reach a paid circulation of more than 98,000, Kinskey said.

Speaking to Park County commissioners on Jan. 19, Powell Tribune General Manager Toby Bonner said community members enjoy having the information in the paper.

“Legal notices might sound boring, but we get a lot of feedback from people who read legal notices,” Bonner said. “And if we haven’t had them in the paper for awhile, sometimes ... I get called; people want to see the minutes.

“They pay attention,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minutes from the Park County Commission’s Jan. 19, Feb. 2, Feb. 9 and Feb. 16 meetings had yet to be uploaded to the county’s official website as of Wednesday.

(This story was expanded from a piece first published in The Sheridan Press and shared to state newspapers via the Wyoming News Exchange.)