It’s a conversation that’s come up in the Republican-dominated Idaho Legislature before — and has been sent back to the drawing board as many times.
It’s become a “political football,” as one legislator put it in 2019.
In a Dec. 13 meeting between Ada County commissioners and state legislators, Republican Commissioner Ryan Davidson threw that football back into play. At the meeting, held annually before the legislative session, he urged legislators to renew efforts to change the state’s law about how the government informs citizens of legal notices.
Under Idaho law , government entities in Idaho are required to place public notices — of foreclosure, name changes and bankruptcies, among other things — in the local newspaper with the highest circulation. With print journalism on the decline, Davidson said, these notifications are of little use to the public. Forcing counties to spend resources on preparing and placing the notices amounts to asking taxpayers to subsidize local news, he said.