Committee backs plan to centralize public notices online; fiscal and access questions raised

The House State Affairs Committee on Thursday introduced RS31961, a proposal to let entities that are required to publish legal notices post them on a centralized state website administered by the State Controller’s Office.

Representative Jeff Ehlers, R‑District 21, said the State Controller already operates infrastructure such as Town Hall Idaho and could host a public‑notice registry. "The state controller already has the infrastructure built with Town Hall Idaho and they can use, similar infrastructure to build, I imagine it'd be like publicnotices.idaho.gov," Ehlers said. He described features including a statewide registry of public works notices and an option for users to subscribe to receive electronic notifications for selected distances from an address.

Representative Barbieri questioned the fiscal estimate presented by staff, asking how the $570,000 figure was calculated. Ehlers said the State Controller’s Office provided the estimate and that the office expects some development work to receive and process the different kinds of notices. Representative Deigert raised usability concerns for residents in smaller counties, asking how an average resident would find and use the central site; Ehlers said the single site would be easier than searching multiple local newspapers or jurisdictions.

The draft also allows, where statutes permit, for notices to be sent as part of regular mailings such as utility statements. Representative Deigert moved to introduce RS31961 for printing; the motion carried by voice vote. Committee members did not record individual roll‑call tallies in the transcript.

Committee members said they would invite State Controller staff to a future hearing to answer technical questions about cost and implementation.