Kitzman’s Bill a Dangerous Step Against Gov. Transparency
For those of us who live near or love the Colorado River, Stan Kitzman has filed a really troubling bill during his freshman year as our local representative in the state house.
Kitzman has authored House Bill 2369, which would eliminate a newspaper notice requirement for applications to discharge pollutants into Texas waters.
Instead, it would allow posting of the permit applications solely on the website of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Kitzman argues that polluters should be able to decide how best to notify the public.
That’s like the old saying about having the fox guard the henhouse.
Make sure to read our news story on Page 1A about Kitzman’s bill in today’s paper to see a real world example of how that can turn out bad locally. Also recently, Elon Musk’s construction company had to publish his controversial permit request to dump over 140,000 gallons of treated wastewater into the Colorado River in Bastrop County because of the current public notice law Kitzman is trying to change.
One of Kitzman’s arguments is that there are some areas in Texas that don’t have newspapers anymore (that’s true in only 27 of the most rural of Texas’ 254 counties), and there are places where the newspaper is not an important source of information, and folks get more and more of their information online.
Thankfully, Fayette County is still blessed with three vibrant local newspapers: The Record, The Schulenburg Sticker and The Flatonia Argus. Kitzman’s argument also fails to recognize that almost all of the newspapers in Texas (the Record included) already post public notices free online on their websites and also send them to the Texas Press Association where all those public notices are compiled into a user friendly searchable database of public notices from all over Texas.
I encourage you to check that out at: www.texaspublic notices.com For free, anyone can easily find out where in the state someone is trying to change their pollution permits, build a gravel pit in your neighborhood, or change the speed limit on your street.
Kitzman’s bill is also a real blow to anyone who is a fan of government transparency.
If this bill becomes law, it’s not a stretch to think other public notices might be next to be hidden online instead of exposed to the light of day. Remember the outcry locally just last fall when the idea of the proposed hydrogen plant in La Grange was first exposed to the light of day because of the newspaper public notice requirement?
In sharp contrast to Kitzman’s bill is a very common sense one filed by our state senator Lois Kolkhorst.
In her Senate Bill 943, she states that for a general circulation newspaper to qualify for paid public notices, it must do what most Texas papers are doing already — post the notices outside its digital paywall and on TPA’s free regularly updated website, in addition to providing traditional print publication services. That’s a bill that actually would increase the public’s notice of public notices. We encourage you to reach out to Kitzman to let him know you oppose this bill. Or reach out to Kolkhorst and let her know you support her bill.
Stan Kitzman
One East Main, Suite 202 Bellville, Texas 77418 (512) 463-0604
Lois Kolkhorst
2000 S. Market St. #101 Brenham, TX 77833