I’m the publisher of an Iowa daily newspaper. A corporation owns my newspaper, and my corporate owners do not live in my city. Consequently, I regularly send them financial and operational information so they can see how every penny is spent and are aware of every decision I have made.

I welcome this accountability. I figure the more information my bosses have about my operation, the more they will trust that I am managing it properly.

Local governments are similar to my newspaper in that their “owners,” the taxpayers, are not present on a daily basis to observe the decisions that are made and how every dime of their money is spent. For that reason, every state in the country requires local governments to disclose the details of all financial transactions, budgets and decisions made affecting the owners. Public notices are an inexpensive, effective transparency tool to hold local governments accountable.

I currently serve as president the Iowa Newspaper Association. For years, I’ve watched in puzzlement and dismay as taxpayer-supported groups such as the Iowa School Board Association, the League of Iowa Cities, the Iowa State Association of Counties and others introduce bill after bill to weaken this vital transparency tool.

During the past few years, bills have been repeatedly introduced to move public notices from newspapers to local government websites. Lawmakers rejected this bad idea for several reasons. First, statewide readership research shows that most Iowans have never visited a local government website. Second, many local governments have no website. Third, research shows that public notices are read in newspapers as well as national sports news. Fourth, statewide readership research and Google Analytics show that Iowans prefer to read notices in newspapers by a ratio of 70-1. Finally, turning this transparency tool over to local governments would lead to a perceived, if not real, conflict of interest.

Local government organizations are now backing a bill designed to eliminate notices in newspapers over time by financially starving the newspapers, which must bear the cost of typesetting, printing and mailing the notices. House Study Bill 72 would require that all notices be published at a maximum $25 fee. Should it pass, I can easily see a scenario in which many newspapers would simply refuse to publish them at such a deep financial loss. Could it be that this is the real point of this legislation?

Local government lobbyists will tell you this bill would save local governments money.

According to the League of Iowa Cities, the average savings of six sample cities would amount to less than four one-thousandths of 1 percent of their budgets.

This is a bad idea that would lead to a distrust of local governments and should quickly be discarded.

Ron Peterson is the publisher of the Sioux City Journal.