By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.VA. — State, county, and municipal governments in West Virginia will spend $4.6 million on legal advertisements this year, according to a legislative audit released Monday. The audit proposes setting up an online state repository for those announcements, but a state newspaper advocate says legislators aren’t getting the full story.
The audit states that, as statewide online internet access improves and print newspaper circulation declines, the state should consider allowing agencies to post legal ads on an online repository maintained by the Secretary of State’s office, while giving counties, school boards, and municipalities the option to use the internet to post legal ads.
“It is the legislative auditor’s opinion that the use of electronic resources could be a way for the state, county, municipal governments, and other governmental entities to save money,” the audit states.
Don Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Press Association, questioned the audit’s methodology and conclusions Monday. “I think the information provided today was very incomplete, and not really reflective of the situation in West Virginia,” he said.
One of the findings in the audit that Smith questioned was that 82 percent of West Virginians have internet access, either through home internet or cellphones with broadband access.
“Just saying that many people have access isn’t the same as saying that system would work for those people,” he said. “Have you tried reading legal ads on a cellphone?” …