BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1812

By: Phillips

Government Efficiency & Reform

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Public notices in newspapers are designed mainly to keep residents informed about the activities of their government. Texas law sets out certain requirements a newspaper must meet to carry public notices placed by governmental entities but does not address certain situations in which there is no newspaper meeting those requirements being published in a particular county.

C.S.H.B. 1812 seeks to allow a governmental entity publishing notice in a county that does not have a newspaper that meets the necessary legal requirements to choose a weekly newspaper that is most likely to reach the greatest number of citizens within that county. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1812 amends the Government Code to extend the application of statutory provisions relating to the type of newspaper required for publication of a notice by a governmental entity or representative in certain counties to include publication of such notice in a county that does not have a newspaper published in the county that devotes not less than 25 percent of its total column lineage to general interest items, is published at least once each week, is entered as second-class postal matter in the county where the newspaper is published, and has been published regularly and continuously for at least 12 months before the entity or representative publishes notice. The bill requires a newspaper in which a notice is published under the bill's provisions, in addition to other requirements, to be entered as periodical postal matter, rather than second-class postal matter.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1812 differs from the original by extending the application of statutory provisions relating to the type of newspaper required for publication of a government notice in certain counties to include publication of notice in a county that does not have a newspaper published in the county that meets specified criteria, whereas the original extends the application of those provisions to publication of notice in a county that does not publish a newspaper that meets those criteria.