The costs of legal ads
When the state Senate returns for 2014, one of the bills it will tackle is a proposal that would no longer require local governments to post public notices in newspapers.
It’s a move that has drawn ire from public information advocates, who believe that stopping that requirement amounts to a step backwards in transparency.
The bill would allow local governments to post legal notices on their own websites — a move that some have touted as a potential cost savings to cash-strapped governments.
However, there hasn’t been a recent comprehensive survey to gauge just how much Pennsylvania’s local governments could save by dropping legal ads from their budgets.
A 2006 study by Penn State University-Harrisburg estimated that local governments spent more than $26 million on such advertising, with the city of Philadelphia racking up some $4 million alone.
But the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association estimates that agencies spend less than one-half of 1 percent of their budgets on print advertising — a figure with which the local governments surveyed in Fayette County were in line.
The county itself spent .1 percent of its budget on advertising in both 2012 and 2013, as did the borough of Brownsville, according to their respective right-to-know officers.
Tim Witt, solicitor for the city of Connellsville, said the city spent, at minimum, $1,779.80 for advertising in 2012, and $5,108.88 in 2013.
Broken down, in 2012, the city spent .05 percent of its $3.38 million budget on advertising. In 2013, that rose to .1 percent of its $3.695 million budget.
“While these figures may not represent a large proportion of the city’s overall budget, the majority of which covers employee salaries and wages, I would estimate that they represent anywhere from approximately 10 to 25 percent of the annual legal costs, expenses and fees paid by the City,” Witt said.
He said that the fees paid toward legal advertisements represent a “substantial amount” of the city’s yearly compliance costs, to ensure that officials comply with state law.
“Free public access to bulletin boards and the Internet through institutions like public libraries, educational institutions and other non-profit organizations is, undoubtedly, another factor that is implicated and should be discussed in connection with the pending legislation. The efficacy of those legal advertisements is another,” he said.
The city of Uniontown includes legal ads under accounts and finance. In 2013, the city budgeted $4,500 in that category, which also includes paying $200 a month to have each meeting videotaped, leaving $2,100 for legal advertising.
With a general fund budget of $5,128,452 in 2013, that works out to .04 percent of the total budget.
For 2014, the city budgeted $4,400 for advertising, which also includes videotaping costs, making the legal ad budget about $2,000, or .039 percent of the $5,029,774 general fund budget.
During the 2012-13 fiscal year, the Uniontown Area School District spent about $6,600 in advertising, although they earmarked $15,000 of their annual $40 million budget, said district business manager Jill Regan.
That $15,000 amount budgeted accounts for .0375 percent of the district’s total budget.
The actual amount spent accounted for.0165 percent of the budget.
In the 2013-14 school year, the district budgeted $9,000 for advertising, and has spent about $2,500 so far.
Denis E. Sheetz, controller for the Albert Gallatin Area School District said that last year the district spent $5,822.42 in advertising. That, Sheetz said, is .01 percent of the total operating budget for the district.
With nearly half of the district’s fiscal year gone, Sheetz said that they have spent $1,241.67 on advertising.
“We may actually end up spending less than last year,” she said.
Brownsville School District spent $9,117 for legal ads during the 2012-13 budget year and budgeted $7,500 for legal ads during the current fiscal year.
With a budget of $24.5 million for 2012-13, the district spent about .0372 percent of that on legal advertising.
Dubbed the Public Notice Modernization Act, SB 733 cleared the Senate Local Government Committee on a 10-1 vote in October, though Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi said further debate and a vote on the Senate floor won’t happen until lawmakers return from winter break on Jan. 7.