Bill
SB 390
SB 390 requires local governments and school units to solicit informal bids each fiscal year and award legal notice contracts to the best-value bidder to lower costs.
Status & Timeline
- Introduced: 2025 (filed for 2025 session; first edition filed Mar 25, 2025).
- Committee referral: Rules and Operations of the Senate.
- Effective date (as written): July 1, 2026 — applies to notices published on or after that date.
Purpose / Intent
- To increase competition and reduce costs for publication of legally required public notices by units of local government and local school administrative units in North Carolina by establishing a consistent informal bidding / procurement process for notice-publication contracts.
Key statutory changes
1. Adds a new section to Article 8 of Chapter 143 (proposed G.S. 143‑129.11):
- Annual procurement: At the start of each fiscal year, contracts for publication of legal notices must be made after securing informal bids.
- Procurement objective: The informal bid process must be designed to maximize competition among eligible newspapers and secure best value for public funds.
- Award criteria: Contracts must be awarded to the “lowest responsible, responsive bidder” with evaluation to consider quality, performance, circulation reach, cost, and compliance with Article 50 of Chapter 1 (statutory reference for notice/publication requirements).
- Bid records: Officials entering a publication contract must keep a record of all informal bids submitted; those bid records are not open to public inspection until after a contract is awarded.
- Fallback: If a unit has no eligible local newspaper, the contract may be awarded to an eligible newspaper as described in G.S. 1‑597(b) or G.S. 1‑599.
- Definitions provided (ties to existing statutory definitions): “Local school administrative unit” (G.S. 115C‑5), “newspaper” (G.S. 1‑597(a)), “publish/publication” (G.S. 153A‑1, 159‑1, 160A‑1), and “unit of local government” (G.S. 159‑7).
Who is affected
- Primary: Counties, municipalities, school districts and other units of local government that contract for the publication of legal notices.
- Newspapers and publishers that compete for legal-ad notice contracts (including those that qualify under G.S. 1‑597/1‑599).
- Public officers, departments, boards and commissions responsible for contracting and public notice publication.
- The public indirectly (potentially through changes in where and how notices are published).
Potential impacts and considerations
- Expected benefits: increased competition for notice contracts, potential reduction in publication costs, and procurement transparency through a standardized informal-bid requirement.
- Administrative effects: local governments will need procedures for soliciting and retaining informal bids and evaluating bidders against the stated criteria each fiscal year.
- Market effects: could shift notice contracts among newspapers based on cost, circulation reach, and performance criteria; may affect small or specialty local newspapers depending on how “circulation reach” and other factors are weighed.
- Legal/operational conformity: awards must still honor statutory notice requirements (Article 50 of Chapter 1); units must ensure informal-bid processes meet procurement and open‑records obligations (while bid records are protected until award).
Plain‑language takeaway
SB 390 requires local governments and school units to solicit informal bids each fiscal year and award their legal‑notice publication contracts to the best-value bidder (lowest responsible, responsive bidder) using clear evaluation factors — with the aim of fostering competition and lowering public notice costs beginning July 1, 2026.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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