School financials, election ballot publication legislation filed


KPA is working against two pieces of legislation that involve public notices.

Senate Bill 118 would allow school districts to publish their financial statements on the district’s website instead of in the newspaper. Through a governor’s veto of language in the biennial budget, publication of the financial statements was required in newspapers in 2016. Budget language since 2002 had allowed school districts to bypass that law and put the information, along with the district’s report card, on the district’s website.

We encourage every newspaper to contact their Senator this weekend to vote against Senate Bill 118. Point out that a recent survey — not sanctioned, commissioned or paid for by KPA or any newspaper — shows that only 4.1 percent of the public believe the government should publish their information on government websites and not in newspapers. If you need that part of the Pulse Research “Pulse of America” survey, please let me know or read last week’s On Second Thought.

House Bill 202, introduced this week, would allow county clerks where there is a consolidated local government, to publish only the names and parties of candidates for office in a newspaper as required under KRS 424.290. The clerks in the two merged counties — Jefferson and Fayette — would then be required to publish the election ballot and related information on the county clerk’s website.

It would not take much effort to change that language to be effective for all counties, not just merged governments.

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