In a third attempt, a Florida legislator is seeking to repeal a state law requiring newspapers to publish legal notices and advertisements.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) has sought to repeal this state law for three consecutive state House sessions. The most recent version, House Bill 35, has received approval from the House’s Civil Justice and Property Rights Subcommittee in an 11-6 vote. Should the Judiciary Committee adopt this bill, it could be voted on by the House as early as March. While the bill is likely to pass within the House, it faces uncertainty in the Senate which did not offer hearings for Fine’s past two bills in 2019 and 2020.
President and CEO of the Florida Press Association Jim Fogler has voiced strong opposition to this bill, claiming it is a poor solution for an issue that does not exist.
“Why would the legislature substitute the current private, robust, independent, user-friendly, online system that provides these digital notices to the public for free with a conflicted government-contracted website that will likely cost a substantial amount of public dollars to implement?” Fogler said.
He also argued that if adopted, the legal notices and ads that reach approximately 6.8 million Floridians a week would be forced to an online forum that would greatly reduce visibility.
HB 35 would still allow local agencies and governments to purchase newspaper space, as well as allow for direct mailing and deliveries.
"The same publications who will write front page article after front page article after front page article bemoaning the influence of special interests in the Legislature parade up here arguing for their own unjustifiable special interest," Fine said. “The arguments that have been used against the bill to some degree point out why the industry is dying: Because many of them are so functionally dishonest.”
Though the fate of the bill is uncertain when it reaches the state Senate, the third time may be the charm.