THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

INTRODUCED BY HORNAMAN, McILVAINE SMITH, CALTAGIRONE, CURRY, MIRABITO, BRENNAN, D. COSTA, HALUSKA AND KORTZ, JULY 20, 2009

AS AMENDED ON SECOND CONSIDERATION, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, NOVEMBER 16, 2009   

AN ACT

Amending Title 45 (Legal Notices) of the Pennsylvania

Consolidated Statutes, further providing for level of

advertising rates and for establishment and change of

advertising rates; and providing for additional publication

on Internet websites.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Sections 303 and 304 of Title 45 of the

Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes are amended to read:

§ 303.  Level of advertising rates.

(a)  General rule.--All official and legal advertising shall

be charged for at an established or declared rate or price per

single column, line of reading matter measured in depth by the

point system, or at a rate or price per inch single column. When

such official and legal advertising is not classified and is not

published according to prescribed or recognized forms, and no

rate has been established or declared, such rate for official

and legal advertising shall not be in excess of the rates

usually charged or received by the publication publishing such

official and legal advertising for commercial, general, or other

advertising.

(b)  [Exception.--Exception.--

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(1)  Where official and legal advertising is  usually and

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ordinarily published according to recognized or prescribed

forms, or particular matters are itemized and classified

under general headings, subsection (a) shall not prohibit the

fixing of definite prices or sums for publishing official and

legal advertising, regardless of the number of single column

lines or space required for each item, notice, or

advertisement published in any separate matter or proceeding,

and regardless of rates established, fixed, charged or

received for commercial, general or other advertising. The

purpose of this subsection is to enable newspapers to take

into consideration, as elements, when fixing advertising

rates or charges, location of the advertisement in the

newspaper, the purpose to be served, the character of the

advertising, and that a newspaper is entitled to compensation

for its readiness at all times to render an advertising

service.] Exceptions.--

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(1) (2)  The following exceptions shall apply to

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newspapers of general circulation:

(i)  Notwithstanding any other provision in this

section, from the effective date of this paragraph 

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subparagraph through June 30, 2012, a newspaper of

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general circulation shall not charge a government unit a

rate or price that exceeds 75% of the legal advertising

rates in effect on July 1, 2009, or that exceeds 75% of

the lowest base classified advertising rate charged by

the newspaper to its noncontractual commercial customers

for advertisements of the same size, composition and use,

whichever is lower.

(2) (ii)  After June 30, 2012, the rate or price may be

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raised no more than the annual cost-of-living increase

calculated by applying the percentage change in the Consumer

Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area, for the

most recent 12-month period for which figures have been

officially reported by the United States Department of Labor,

Bureau of Labor Statistics. In no event shall the rate or

price charged under this paragraph exceed 75% of the lowest

base classified advertising rate charged by the newspaper to

its noncontractual commercial customers for advertisements of

the same size, composition and use.

(3) (iii)  The provisions of this subsection paragraph

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shall not apply to fees for services requested by a

government unit in addition to publication, or to legal

advertising for which the cost is reimbursed to the

government unit.

§ 304.  Establishment and change of advertising rates.

(a)  General rule.--All newspapers of general circulation,

official newspapers and legal newspapers accepting and

publishing official and legal advertising, are hereby required

to fix and establish rates and charges for official, legal and

all other kinds of advertising, offered or accepted for

publication, and such publications shall furnish, on demand, to

any person having use for the same, detailed schedules, stating

the rates and charges which shall be deemed to be in force and

effect until changed or altered, and, when changed or altered,

such publication shall give the person authorized or required to

publish advertising, before demanding or receiving compensation

at any increased rate, notice that the rates and charges of such

publication for advertising have been changed or abrogated, and

that increased advertising rates and charges have been

established or fixed.

(b)  Publication of notice.--No later than 30 days after the

effective date of this subsection and 30 days prior to any

change in rates as allowable under section 303 (relating to

level of advertising rates), each newspaper of general

circulation which accepts publication of legal notices shall be

required to print for three consecutive days a notice in 12-

point type of the rate or charge which the newspaper intends to

charge for the publication of legal notices. Such notices shall

be placed in the section where legal notices are ordinarily

published. At the same time, the newspaper shall deliver to each

government unit within its area of circulation a notice of its

rates and charges for the publication of legal notices.

(c)  Annual audit.--The legal advertising rate charged by

newspapers of general circulation shall be subject to annual

audit at the discretion of the Auditor General of the

Commonwealth.

Section 2.  Title 45 is amended by adding a section to read:

§ 308.1.  Additional publication on Internet websites.

(a)  General rule.--Except as otherwise provided by statute,

every notice or advertisement required by law or rule of court

to be published in one or more newspapers of general

circulation, unless dispensed with by special order of court,

shall also be published on an Internet website with a searchable

database of legal notices, maintained by or contracted to

provide such service by a newspaper of general circulation.

Publication shall be subject to the same stipulations and

regulations as those imposed for the publication of print

notices.

(b)  Exceptions.--

(1)  This section shall not apply if high-speed Internet

broadband service is not available in the newspaper's area of

publication and circulation.

(2)  Provided that print publication requirements are

satisfied, temporary disruption of an Internet posting shall

not affect the validity or legal effect of an advertisement

where such disruption is caused in whole or in part by causes

beyond agency control, including fire, flood, explosion, war,

strike, embargo, act of God, acts or omissions of carriers,

transmitters, telephone companies, Internet service

providers, vandals or hackers.

Section 3.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.