Each year at the organizational meeting of the county legislature, as directed by county law, the Majority and Minority Caucus submit one paper for the status of "official county" newspaper for that year. These two papers then publish legal notices and such which cost the county for each paper in the range of $30,000 to $50,000 a year.
Over the last decade the Majority and Minority Caucus have chosen one paper each as that is the clear understanding of county law. Section 214 This year, breaking with the accepted practice and without notice to the Minority Caucus the Republican Majority Caucus picked TWO papers doubling the cost to the county taxpayers!
The Democratic Minority Caucus refused to go along with this as it was an extra burden to the taxpayers with no GOOD reason.
Several Republican Legislators attempted to explain that they wanted more coverage, but could not answer why now. Why just the Valley News and why no notice the the Minority?
In attempting to answer the question why, one should look at last years legislative elections. Anyone who read the Valley News could have the opinion that it was a political payback for their coverage. Clearly the Valley News seemed to slat their coverage and use their editorials against legislators that did not toe the "Republican Party Line." (see this article as an opinion of the coverage) Legislators that voted to reform county government were singled out and stories were written that cast an unfavourable light on them. In the next few days we will highlight several stories that the Valley News ran that were not correct, factually.
It seems the additional paper, the Valley News, ran many..many stories that were slanted against reform candidates/ Democrats and in favor of Republicans.
One thing is clear the Republican Caucus has never picked the Valley News in their history, so the question is why now?
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