LETTER: Law requiring print legals is ‘outdated,’ needs changed

Talk about it

To the Editor:

The following is a response to the opinion of The Daily Republic editorial board in The Daily Republic on Jan. 18.

As a person who had his salary in the minutes of a local government this year, I agree that it is public information and should be readily available to the public, for they do pay my wages.

There are two different types of legals that are in the paper.

There are ones that are placed in the paper for a zoning issue and the cost is offset by the application fee.

If you do read all the legals, most are paid by those benefitting from the required notice.

All minutes in the paper are paid with your tax dollars.

If these help sell papers, by all means the paper should print them to sell more papers.

I called and got an approximate cost of the minutes for Davison County in 2012 and it was $28,900. The cost to the city of Mitchell was approximately $30,500. The approximate cost for the Mitchell School District was $11,000 (average 1.5 meetings a month).

Think about all the other school districts, townships and cities that also pay to have their minutes in the paper. Everyone still has to buy the paper to have access to the same information. I bought a paper the other day and it cost me $1.06 with tax. With modern technology, those with email could have them sent directly to them for free or could go to a web page for the entity where they would be posted. All those that still support the U.S. Postal Service could bring self-addressed stamped envelopes and have them mailed for a lot less than the cost of a newspaper. It is an outdated law. It needs to be changed.

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