TPA session efforts bring major wins for newspapers: Public notices, anti-SLAPP law defended in 89th Legislature

AUSTIN — The Legislature has adjourned, and newspapers represented by the Texas Press Association are legally stronger than they were when it convened.

ANALYSIS By MIKE HODGES and DONNIS BAGGETT, Texas Press Association

The final gavel fell 140 days and 11,503 bills after the 89th session began. When the smoke cleared, TPA’s legislative record showed major wins to help members survive a rapidly evolving political and media environment.

We stopped sweeping attempts to weaken or eliminate newspaper public notice requirements overall. We also stalled most smaller-scale bills that would weaken or eliminate specific notices, although we lost the battle to maintain requirements for newspaper notices of law enforcement sales of seized or abandoned property, and notices of sales of abandoned towed vehicles.

Meanwhile, lawmakers passed a number of bills that actually added new requirements for our newspaper notices.

Among TPA’s most important wins was passage of SB 1062/HB 3782, which allows a newspaper in a one-newspaper  county to maintain its eligibility for paid public notices should it become economically necessary to eliminate its print edition and convert to digital-only circulation.

The legislation by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, paves a way to help such newspapers survive the firestorm of skyrocketing printing and distribution costs. And by doing so, it provides a way for the communities they serve to avoid becoming so-called “news deserts.”

SB 1062/HB 3782 was signed into law by Gov. Gregg Abbott and went into effect immediately. Since it’s applicable only to one-newspaper counties, it will not eliminate longstanding print newspaper requirements in competitive public notice markets. Counties with multiple newspapers will still be legally required to run their notices in a general-circulation print newspaper if one exists there.

Another major victory for TPA and our allies was the successful defense of the Texas Citizens Participation Act, often referred to as the anti-SLAPP law.

The 14-year-old TCPA helps newspapers and all others who exercise their First Amendment rights to defend themselves against meritless nuisance libel suits filed by well-heeled plaintiffs with deep pockets in retribution for coverage or comments that they disliked.

Hats off to Haynes and Boone attorney Laura Prather, who represents not only TPA but also the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and the Texas Sunshine Coalition. Laura was instrumental in passing the TCPA in 2011 and has defended the law ferociously against attacks to weaken it every legislative session since.

Accompanying this analysis is a briefing by Laura on how the session went for transparency and accountability advocates. We had some wins, but as you’ll see, we ran into the usual roadblock in our attempts to shore up the open government law — the Texas Senate.

As Laura reports, we desperately need more Senate advocates for strengthening open government. For years transparency legislation has fared much better in the House than in the Senate.

We have some  staunch Senate friends, to be sure — Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo; Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham; Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-Edinburg; Mayes Middleton, R-League City; and Nathan Johnson-D-Dallas, for example. They have been happy to carry legislation for us, but we need to add to their ranks and to build stronger relationships with the chairs of committees who hear most of our bills.

That means we must do a better job of hometown, grass-roots lobbying.

We’re in the process of tying up the loose ends of the session, so when you get to the convention in Denton later this month you’ll have a detailed list of the bills that concerned TPA issues.

We hope you’ll take time to study that list and then do two things: (1.) Resolve to do everything you can to help our legislative effort between now and 2027, and (2.) Contact your state legislators now, not just a day or two before the 2027 session.

Tell them thanks for their service to your district and to Texas. Tell them you’d like to buy them a cup of coffee when they get time and get their take on things. Invite them to write an op-ed for your paper now and then. 

And ask them if you and your TPA colleagues can sit down with them during the interim and discuss our legislative needs.

As always, TPA’s strength in Austin is based on the grassroots engagement of TPA members themselves.