There is a bill that has passed the Senate in the Arizona Legislature that would remove the longstanding requirement for towns, cities and counties to publish their official notices in newspapers. This bill, SB1073, has already gained support in the Senate, including from local legislators such as Wendy Rogers. The measure now moves forward, and its passage could dramatically reduce transparency in local government by allowing these notices to exist only on government websites.
We need to keep these notices in newspapers because it ensures the public has a permanent, unalterable record. Once something is printed, it cannot be changed or quietly edited after the fact. If a decision is made that you have a right to know of, whether it is a new tax, a proposed zoning change or a law that grows or shrinks government power, you should be able to see that decision in its original form, unaltered and publicly accessible. That is the value of an independent platform such as a local paper. Shifting the responsibility of posting notices to government websites alone opens the door for these records to be modified or, in some cases, quietly hidden.
I worry that this approach could allow officials to push through changes with less public scrutiny. By making the information harder to find, or accessible only to those who have reliable internet and already know exactly which website to visit, the measure risks excluding large groups of people, especially in rural and tribal communities, from the processes that govern their lives. That lack of easy public access to official actions could weaken our collective ability to voice concerns or hold government leaders accountable.
We should maintain the system that has worked for so many years. Publishing notices in newspapers does not mean turning our backs on modern technology. Newspapers already share these notices online and contribute them to centralized digital platforms. It means giving people the widest possible range of options to stay informed. The more open and transparent government is, the better we can safeguard the principle that decisions made on our behalf should be known to all.
As someone who has witnessed how vital newspapers are for providing reliable information, especially in places where internet connections are limited or even nonexistent, I urge everyone to recognize the significance of preserving an official record that cannot be quietly altered. I believe we should speak out against SB1073 before it proceeds any further. Our communities deserve nothing less than full transparency when it comes to the decisions that shape our day-to-day lives. I have called all of the representatives from districts 6 and 7 where we serve and voiced my opinion, I hope you all do as well. If this does get passed, the fight is not over, we must petition our local governments to instill this record keeping in their charters to ensure the peoples’ information stays the peoples’ information.
