Indiana House Once Again Wants to Spend More, Share Less

It’s back. I had high hopes after more than a hundred newspaper people and supporters showed up at the Indiana Statehouse last year that perhaps we might’ve gotten some of our good Legislators to see the light. But nooooooo. The hired hands in Indianapolis are back with a vengeance, hell-bent on taking public notices out of Indiana newspapers and hiding them, uh, sorry, posting them on a massive government website that will be about as easy to navigate as the Pythagorean theorem.

Here are the big points raised in committee meetings at the Statehouse while they rushed through HB 1283.

• Cost
• Modernization
• Government website

Let’s address those, shall we. The hired hands are big about telling you how much money they spent on a specific public notice, or even an annual cost. Those numbers are in the thousands of dollars. That’s not wrong. What they DON’T tell you is what percent of the overall budget that is. In every single case I did the math on, the cost of public notices amounts to less than one percent of that entity’s budget.

Here’s the other thing they never mention while they pontificate grandly on “saving taxpayers money” . . . anything to do with themselves. Want to talk waste? Let’s look at their pension program. It is far superior to anything the private sector has. Let’s look at how much exemptions cost. By that I mean programs that apply to all the rest of us out here in taxpayer land . . . but do not apply to the overlords on Capitol Avenue.

One more note on costs, but let’s hold that off until we get to the big, beautiful government website.

Modernization? Wow! So happy they brought this up. They like to point out that no one reads newspapers anymore. What? Do they think we’re sitting in a back press room, covered in paper dust and ink smudges? We “modernized” years ago and today the vast majority of our readers are digital. Most of you are reading these words on a screen. A phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop . . . very few of you are holding a paper in your hands.

Modernization? Maybe they should get with today’s world and find out how this really works!

And lastly, and my favorite – a government website. See, on the surface, it makes sense. One website could be created where all the public notice bills could go and bing, bang, boom . . . problem solved. So the hired hands are ever-so-kindly offering to do exactly that for us poor peons out here . . . because, you know, they like to take care of us.

And hey, for the low, low price of about half a million bucks – they’ll do it!

Sigh.

Here’s what they don’t tell you.

That site already exists. It’s courtesy of the Hoosier State Press Association, a wonderful organization led by Executive Director Pam Lego. HSPA made this site a reality, last week . . . oh no, wait. Maybe it was last month . . . wait, hang on . . . THAT SITE HAS BEEN IN PLACE FOR A FEW YEARS!!!

And it doesn’t cost anywhere close to half a million bucks a year to operate.

Here’s a question. Name something the government does better than private business.

Go ahead.

I’ll wait.

Yup, that’s what I thought.

Here’s another thing they are not telling you. This website would be manned by two or three government employees. They would be charged with ensuring all the legals from every corner of the great state of Indiana are posted. Newspapers currently have dozens of employees doing that work – and yet our state thinks a couple state employees are going to get all the same work done?

And for you city, county and school officials, how do you think it’ll work on your end? Right now you send your notices to your friendly Indiana newspaper. They take it and make it work. Think the state will do that? What are the chances that the state will tell you exactly what format it has to be in? Probably not very big, right? Following state guidelines is always a seamless, easy, nothing-to-it process . . . right? I mean, c’mon . . . the state doesn’t tell you how to do your job now, right?

If this passes, there is no way in Hades that a small amount of state employees can do the work that dozens of private sector people do now. Altogether, there are probably 50 to 60 Indiana newspaper employees tasked to work on legals. That’s their full-time job. That’s a couple thousand of man hours A WEEK! Think two or three state employees are going to be able to get all that work done in their 80 to 120 hours? (And hey, let’s not even mention pay. Good, bad or indifferent – newspapers are not exactly known to be payers of high wages. What do you think a state employee makes per hour – not to mention the costs of the benefits! Those newspaper jobs will be eliminated, Hoosiers will be out of work and the answer the state has won’t work. You can count on a year or so later they’ll grow the agency and the budget will explode. Half a million today turns into a million or twelve tomorrow. That’s the way it always works.)

None of this even touches on the fact that the government site would be – not the equivalent of – the exact scenario of the fox guarding the hen house. See, right now our government is required to put in writing their intentions to raise your taxes, vote themselves raises, etc. What do you think the chances might be that one of those notices falls through the cracks if the government is the only one responsible for telling you about it?

Just saying.

Besides, I think we all know the answer to that.

Folks, it has been said in this space many times . . . newspapers ain’t what they used to be. The entire media landscape is changing. I’m not trying to tell you it’s not. But the last thing we need right now is another body shot, another negative impact – especially when it boils down to something completely unnecessary.

I hope you will reach out to your elected officials – mainly your state senators. This is a fight taking place now, today. We need your help. They need your help.  It’s about so many things, transparency in government, local newspapers, local jobs, tax money and good stewardship of such. Help them remember that please.

Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically in The Times. Timmons is the chief executive officer of Sagamore News Media, the company that owns The Noblesville Times. He is also a proud Noblesville High School graduate and can be contacted at ttimmons@thetimes24-7.com.