Missouri bill would cut taxpayer cost of printing county financials in newspapers

(The Center Square) – Fewer tax dollars collected in small Missouri counties will go to newspapers for publishing pages of detailed financial statements under a bill in the legislature.

“You know how important just a few dollars are to a small county,” Rep. Peggy McGaugh, R-Carrollton, sponsor of House Bill 1606 and a former Carroll County Clerk, told Rep. Rodger Reedy, R-Windsor, a former Benton County Assessor and vice chairman of the committee on Local Government, during a hearing on Thursday. “You know this in state (government) and coming from the county. I can see we’re bad at the state level in pushing expenses off to the county level. We do it practically every day. It happens on the floor and those of us from county government look at each other and shake our heads. This won’t affect the state but will definitely help our counties.”

Reedy praised McGaugh for again sponsoring the bill. It passed the House 142-7 last year but stalled in committee late in the session.

“It’s still a good bill and will help counties a lot,” Reedy said. “Thank you for being persistent. A lot of times, it might cost $2,000 or $3,000 to print this and a county might need that to balance their general revenue fund.”

The fiscal note prepared for the bill states 96 second-, third- and fourth-class counties could each save $2,100 and estimated a savings of $201,600 to taxpayers throughout the state. The law currently requires first-class counties without a charter form of government to publish an annual financial statement in a condensed format in a newspaper in its county. It also requires smaller counties to report every expenditure, including payments to election judges and jurors.

McGaugh showed the committee a newspaper with several pages containing a complete financial statement and the smaller-sized condensed statement, fitting on one page.

“Thank you for the visual because it looked like they put in every single line, just handed over their ledger,” said Rep. Bridget Walsh Moore, D-St. Louis. “I’m all for transparency, but all of that doesn’t need to be in the newspaper.”

The bill will require the name, office and current gross salary of each elected or appointed county official to be published. The bill also requires a digital copy of the data is given to any newspaper requesting it.

The bill states the newspaper publishing the financial statement may charge no more than its regular local classified advertising rate.

McGaugh testified that communication with the Missouri Press Association helped newspaper publishers understand the importance of reducing information while providing reporters with detailed digital information.

“The best part about this bill, I believe, is the relationship I gained with the Missouri Press Association,” McGaugh said. “What’s the saying about (criticizing) the guy who buys the ink by the barrel? But they have been more than willing to work with me on this. They know it will reduce the amount of income to some of their small papers, but they also know the clerk is going to provide the press with a thumb drive and they’ll be able to use that information in different ways.”

McGaugh gave an example of a reporter being more easily able to digitally find information on a county sheriff purchasing new automobiles.

Mark Maassen, executive director of the Missouri Press Association, testified in favor of the bill and praised McGaugh’s efforts.

“We’re in support of this bill and Rep. Mcgaugh was a guest at one of our board meetings to discuss this,” Maassen said. “The board agreed to the language and we have shared it with all of our membership.”

Steve Hobbs, executive director of the Missouri Association of Counties and a former county official, testified in favor of the bill and said the current law is burdensome.

“My (county) report was about 14 pages in the local newspaper and it cost $10,000,” Hobbs said. “Quite frankly, we were having trouble getting papers to bid on it because they really didn’t want to fool with it. It’s become an issue in a lot of other communities.”

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