Opinion: Urgent Call to Action

By Editor | February 19, 2025 |

By Allyson Dix, Managing Editor/Barren County Progress

I will contact my state representative tonight to urge her to vote no on HB 368, but she has already voted in favor of ensuring the public is restricted from easy access to public information in a House committee yesterday. I’m not sure my voice will be considered. Nonetheless, I will still contact her as both an employee of a newspaper and a constituent.

State Representative Amy Neighbors states in an email to Jobe Publishing, Inc. that her support of such a bill would keep her districts and other government entities from being “forced” to pay for legal advertising in her community newspapers, despite it being your tax dollars that pay for that information.

In Metcalfe and other Jobe Publishing counties, many of our readers don’t always have access to the internet, especially our older generations, nor the time to search every single governmental website to try to find what they’re up to. That’s what our local newspapers strive to do. (Pass the contact information below to those who may wish to contact Neighbors or their House Rep. yet do not have the internet to see this information).

In a 2023 study by America’s Newspaper by Coda Ventures, 79% say they read their local news to stay informed and that number far surpasses the other reasons listed in the study.

In fact, broken down into generational groups, every generation reads their local news to stay informed: Ages 18-24 (70%); Ages 25-39 (78%); Ages 40-59 (81%); Ages 60-74 (82%); and Age 75 and older (80%).

Eight out of ten Americans access local newspapers each month, equating to 218 million people who rely on their local newspapers to keep them informed across the nation.

Overwhelmingly, people read their local newspapers to stay informed! That includes legal public notices embedded into HB 368.

At America’s inception, Freedom of the Press helped to concrete transparency into your government’s business. Your government, including Amy Neighbors, wants to filter information such as public notices through their own websites, leaving constituents (and your community newspapers) in the void.

Imagine that, the government wants to strictly publish its own information.

At a time when government scrutiny and distrust are at record level highs across the nation, Neighbors and whomever other representative supports this bill, are looking to hide even more from their constituents.

It is a full-time job trying to keep up with our government and leaves the public, people with busy lives who have full-time jobs and commitments, in the dark.

I would love to know which local government entities are encouraging her to support such a move.

It’s YOUR tax dollars that are paying for the advertising anyway.

While legal ads are not the sole revenue for newspapers, this is a big hit for smaller communities like ours.

HB 368 is designed to remove the legal requirement for newspaper publications and transfer it to a website operated by the local government.

This includes your local school districts as well.

Call your state representative, including Amy Neighbors if you live in Adair, Metcalfe, Monroe, and Cumberland counties now. A vote could come as early as tomorrow, February 20, 2025.

Encourage her to reverse course on her support that ensures you remain in the dark without hours and hours of trying to keep up with every board, every committee, every council, and every other governmental entity.

Remember this when you head to the polls next time!

Email: amy.neighbors@kylegislature.gov

Phone: 502-564-8100

You can also access contact information for your representatives at https://legislature.ky.gov/Pages/contactus.aspx