With the clock running out on the 2019 legislative session, State Rep. Andrew Sorrell (R-Muscle Shoals) ran out of time to get legislation that would end the requirement for legal notices to be published in newspapers, one of the areas he identified as wasteful earlier this year.
The Colbert County Republican legislator told Huntsville’s WVNN radio on Wednesday the effort this year was introduced “a little bit too late” to get to the House floor for consideration.
However, he pledged he would renew his effort in the next legislative session and said he had backing from some of Montgomery’s most powerful entities.
“I’m still working on that bill,” he said. “I’m going to pre-file. I’m going to be ready to go on day one. I really got it introduced a little bit too late. And I took my time and I crafted what I think is a pretty good bill. Because of that, it was introduced a little bit too late in the session to try. It’s kind of a heavy lift, but I do have some support from House leadership on that bill. That’s going to help. That’s going to help it move. I was approached today by someone from ALDOT who said we need this bill. We waste millions of dollars a year on mandatory legal notices for every road project we do. And he said I want to talk to you about this in the offseason and we’re going to help you lobby for it next year. It’s definitely going to be a priority bill of mine next year. And I wish I had started on it about two months before I did, but that can’t be helped.”
Sorrell said the only opposition was coming from those with interests in newspapers.
“Literally the only people who have said something negative about this bill is somebody who either owns a newspaper or works at one,” Sorrell said. “I mean that’s it. That’s the entirety of the opposition. Everybody else – the legislators love the idea. You know like, ‘When are we going to see this bill on the floor because we all have to take our local bills to newspapers and advertise them. It’s a cumbersome and expensive process. And you know there’s lots of differing [people] – lawyers, anyone who would save money, contractors have to do legal notices. All of those people are going to support this bill. The League of Municipalities supports it. The county commission association helped me draft this bill. The Secretary of State supports this bill. He would be the one implementing the infrastructure to display legal notices on his website. There’s a lot of support out there for the bill. I really feel like I got it started just a little bit too late this year.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
