Veto aids public records

Questionable provisions sometimes sneak into the state budget at the last minute with no obvious sponsor or any debate. Thanks to Gov. Matt Bevin for vetoing one such provision that would have given local governments the option of no longer publishing their financial reports in the local newspaper.

Another Bevin veto requires school districts to resume publishing their financial statements and report cards in the local newspaper.

Century-old public-notice requirements should not be discarded without safeguards to assure that required government reports published on the Internet will be easily and permanently accessible to the public. No such safeguards are in place. A legislative committee is studying the merits of public notices in newspapers vs. on government websites — a study welcomed by the Kentucky Press Association. Changes in open-government and public-notice requirements should be made only after open, public discussions by lawmakers.

The KPA posts government notices published by Kentucky newspapers on kypublicnotices.newzgroup.com.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Veto aids public records."