A bill loosening the requirement that legal notices be published in a local newspaper was defeated Tuesday in a 35-39 vote of the Utah House.
Bill sponsor Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, argued that the notices are costly and inefficient, as legal parties can be individually notified without general publication. But Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, objected to the bill, saying that notices provide critical revenue to newspapers, particularly smaller publications that serve Utah’s rural communities.
“Large newspapers with large circulation can replace that revenue with commercial ads,” Nelson said. “This is an unnecessary provision that appears to do more harm than good.