Kane County hopes to save cash by changing publishing law

Calling it a "sweetheart deal" of the same ilk many newspapers would decry, Kane County officials pledged to fight for a change in state law that will allow for competitive bidding for the publishing of county assessment information and legal notices.

Kane County Supervisor of Assessments Mark Armstrong urged county board members to lobby against a state law that requires assessors to publish assessment information in a locally published newspaper. So, for instance, because the Daily Herald is published in Cook County, Armstrong can only publish assessment information in it if he incurs the additional cost of also publishing it in one of the locally published papers.

Publishing assessment information is the largest single expense in the supervisor of assessments' office next to personnel with a cost of nearly $220,000 a year. Armstrong wants to change the law so all the newspapers that circulate in the Kane County area can bid for the publishing contract, hopefully resulting in a large savings for the county.

"I can't guarantee any savings, but let us see the prices," Armstrong said. "Right now it is a sweetheart, no-bid contract. Let us treat newspapers like we do every other item of procurement."

Armstrong said assessors have tried to get the law changed but been defeated by lobbyists representing the interests of the smaller local papers.

County Board Member Phil Lewis suggested a more aggressive approach of changing the law so that assessors only have to publish the information on their Web sites, thereby saving all publishing costs.

"I appreciate that not everyone has a computer, but I doubt there's a library in the county that does not have a computer. So I don't think access is the issue," Lewis said.

The county board's Legislative Committee agreed to author a letter urging a change in the law as well as directing its lobbyists to urge local state lawmakers to support a change.