Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
House debate stalls on letting parishes post official notices on their own websites
Loading...
Summary
A lengthy committee debate over HB 9-97 — which would let parishes, municipalities and school boards choose to publish required public notices on their official websites — ended without a favorable report after members and stakeholders questioned access, verification, and the role of local newspapers.
Representative Edmondson told the committee HB 9-97 is intended to modernize public notice delivery and avoid duplicate spending by allowing local governments the option to publish legally required notices on their official websites. "Why are taxpayers required to pay twice for the same notice?" Edmondson asked, summarizing his rationale that local governments already post notices online while also paying newspapers for publication.
Debbie Hinton, executive counsel for the Police Jury Association, said the bill is "not a departure from existing policy" and stressed the statute does not change what must be published or when — it only provides an additional delivery option for parishes, municipalities and school boards. "This is a permissive bill. It is not a mandate," Hinton told the committee, noting many local governments already publish notices on their own websites.
Guy Cormier of the Police Jury Association said the option would give local governments three choices — continue using printed official journals, pay for digital publishing through a newspaper vendor, or publish on the local entity's own website — and urged flexibility for jurisdictions with in‑house IT capacity.
Press representatives warned against removing an independent, external check. Sam Hanna of the Louisiana Press Association said the public notice framework provides important independent oversight and cautioned that moving entirely away from paper could have unintended consequences for oversight and local news ecosystems. The press association and publishers emphasized that public‑notice content on newspaper websites is not placed behind paywalls and that a statewide public‑notice database (louisianapublicnotice.com) already exists and is widely used.
Committee amendments narrowed the bill's scope to parishes, municipalities and school boards. After extended debate and a roll call on the motion to report the bill as amended, the committee recorded three yeas and four nays and the motion did not pass; the transcript records that the bill "will not be reported." Supporters asked for further negotiation with press representatives on verification and attestations for postings and emphasized that many small parishes are already struggling with publication costs and irregular newspaper service.
