Mpls-Issues tip: PLEASE trim/cut the previous message that you are responding to. The redundant characters make it harder for Digest readers to read and it needlessly lengthens download times. ----------- So who gets to decide if the law is obsolete or not? How hard is it to get 13 council members to agree that laws about selling straw can be axed? Please tell me if I missed something here, this just doesn't seem like we'd need to change very much to get rid of things that may have applied way back. Rich Chandler - Ward 9 ================= From: Sen. Linda Higgins I carried a bill this year that would allow local units of govt in the metro area to publish by web. The newspaper lobby had a hissy fit. Using the web would save taxpayers even more. ================= From: David Brauer There's a fascinating piece in this weeks' Southwest Journal about the Minneapolis Charter Commission being hamstrung in repealing out of date laws (such as places for selling straw). Seems the laws run to 50 pages, and publishing them in ballot form (so voters could decide) would be prohibitively expensive. The City Council can repeal them by a 13-0 vote, but the laws still have to be published in the city's official newspaper (is it still Finance & Commerce?), also too expensive. Therefore, the city might go to the legislature (almost certainly next year at the earliest) to get an exemption from the publishing request. When/if the city does go to St. Paul, they should ask that the legislature allow them to substitute web publishing for paper publishing. That way, interested readers can see the text, just online instead of in the paper. I know what some of you are thinking - "what about the digital divide?" Well, folks, lets be real: how many of us see Finance & Commerce anyway? My bet is more folks have web access! Even those who don't can get it a public library almost as easily as finding Finance & Commerce on the street. And as a further compromise, the legislature could insist that the web address of the outdated-law document be published to alert citizens where to surf. I wonder if newspaper lobbyists would oppose this as a precedent to the lucrative official-document publishing monopoly? But as a taxpayer, I think it's time as come! Beyond cost, the web is more available than some of these obscure official publications. David Brauer - King Field - Ward 10 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
