EDITORIAL: The government wants another expensive, less effective program. What else is new?
The Idaho Legislature is reviving a bill that would fundamentally alter how public notices reach citizens — and not for the better. House Bill 166, sponsored by Representatives Jeff Ehlers and Josh Tanner, proposes moving legal notices from newspapers to a government-run website, a change that raises serious concerns about transparency and public access to vital information.
Let's talk numbers. In Ada County, with a budget of $372 million, current legal notice costs amount to just $72,000 — a mere 0.019% of the total budget. The "savings" would amount to 14 cents per resident. Meanwhile, the state would need to spend $500,000 on infrastructure improvements just to implement this system. When “government efficiency” costs more than it saves, it's worth asking why we're pursuing this at all.
We've seen this story before: What starts as a supposedly streamlined government solution inevitably morphs into a bureaucratic labyrinth. New positions will need to be created, maintained, and funded. IT systems will require constant updates and maintenance. What's pitched as something simple inevitably expands into a complex web of administrators, coordinators, and managers — all funded by taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, newspapers have handled these notices for over a century with remarkable efficiency, driven by market forces to keep costs low and accessibility high.
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