Did Louisiana's insurance newsletter have to list postage separately in its public printing cost statement?

Plain-English summary

A legislator questioned the cost statement on the September 2000 Louisiana Insurance Update. The statement gave a total publication cost but did not break out estimated postage and distribution expenses. In 2000, the attorney general's office said R.S. 43:31 required those expenses to be used in computing cost, but did not require each cost component to appear separately in the printed statement. From the total alone, the office could not say the newsletter had omitted postage from its calculation.

The office found other defects. The statement did not identify the document's purpose or name the number of printings, both of which the office read R.S. 43:31 to require. Saying that 20,000 copies were made in "this printing" did not supply the number of printings.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2000. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

State agency publishers at the time

The office said preparation, printing, and circulation expenses, including estimated postage and distribution, had to be used to compute the total cost. It did not require separate printed lines for those components.

Public information officers at the time

The opinion identified the purpose of the document and number of printings as information missing from the newsletter's printed statement. A copy count for one printing was insufficient for the latter requirement in the office's view.

Legislators reviewing publications at the time

The opinion distinguished a missing cost breakdown from proof of a missing cost calculation. Because the newsletter labeled a figure as total cost, the office said it could not infer that postage or other components had been left out.

Common questions

Q: Did the newsletter have to print a separate postage amount?
A: No. The opinion said estimated postage and distribution had to be used in computing cost, but did not have to be itemized in the statement.

Q: Did the attorney general find the insurance newsletter's cost statement fully compliant?
A: No. It said the statement omitted the publication's purpose and the number of printings.

Q: Did "20,000 copies in this printing" state the number of printings?
A: The opinion said no. That language described copies in a printing without naming the number of printings.

Background and statutory framework

R.S. 43:31 prescribed a public document cost statement and identified preparation, printing, and circulation as factors in the cost calculation. The newsletter stated a total cost of $2,750 and a copy count. The office compared its printed language with the statute, finding no requirement to itemize each cost factor but identifying the purpose and printing count omissions.

Citations and references

• R.S. 43:31 (state printed matter cost statements and cost factors)
• Attorney General Opinion 90-437 (earlier computation example discussed in the opinion)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/00-0378

Original opinion text

October 20, 2000
OPINION 00-378

Hon. Emile "Peppi" Bruneau
Speaker Pro Tempore
House of Representatives, District 94
P.O. Box 94062
Baton Rouge, LA 70804

Dear Representative Bruneau:

This office is in receipt of your request for an opinion of the Attorney General in regard to legal sufficiency of the cost statement published by the Dept. of Insurance. You point out that R.S. 43:31 specifies certain content of the cost statement and identifies criteria, including estimated postage, for the computation of costs required to be disclosed, but you state that it appears that the cost statement on the September 2000, "Louisiana Insurance UPDATE" does not meet the requirement set out by R.S. 43:31.

Pertinent to your inquiry is Subsections (B) and (C) of R.S. 43:31 which provide as follows:

(1) All printed matter, except documentation in connection with proceedings of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government, printed or caused to be printed by any branch, department, agency, official, employee, or other entity of state government, shall contain the following statement, with required information inserted, printed on the publication adjacent to the identification of the agency responsible for publication: "This public document was published at a cost of $. (number)copies of this public document were published in this (number) printing at a cost of $.
The total cost of all printings of this document, including reprints is $ ___.
This document was published by (name and address of person, firm, or corporation or agency which printed the material) to (statement of purpose) under authority of (citation of law requiring publication or of special exception by division of administration, the legislative budgetary control council, or the judicial budgetary control council as provided in Subsection A). This material was printed in accordance with the standards for printing state agencies established pursuant to R.S. 43:31." If the printing of the material was not done by a state agency, the above statement shall include the following additional language: "Printing of this material was purchased in accordance

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Rep. Emile "Peppi" Bruneau
OPINION 00-378
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with the provisions of Title 43 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes." This statement shall be printed in the same type as the body of the document and shall be set in a box composed of a one-point rule.

(2) The provisions of this Subsection shall not apply to printed matter used by the following entities: the Department of Economic Development for the purpose of attracting new industry to locate within the state of Louisiana; the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, relative to new promotional materials; and public colleges and universities, and vocational-technical schools.

C. The following three factors shall be utilized in computing cost data:

(1) Preparation of the public document for publication;
(2) Printing, including all expenditures for reproduction, whether on bid or in- house.
(3) Circulation, including all estimated expenditures for postage and distribution of the public document.

The Louisiana Insurance Update in question contains the following statement:

This public document was published at a total cost of $2,750.00 A total of 20,000 copies of this public document were published in this printing. This document was published for the Louisiana Department of Insurance, P.O.
Box 94214, Baton Rouge, LA., 70804-9214. by Moran Printing, Baton Rouge, LA under the authority of special exception by the Division of Administration. This material was printed in accordance with the standard for printing by state agencies established pursuant to R.S. 43:31.
.
R.S. 43:31(B) provides in part that the document shall contain, in addition to cost of publication and number of copies, a statement by whom the document was printed, "statement of purpose", and under what authority, such as citing of law requiring publication or of special exception of division of administration. In this regard we do not find any statement as to the purpose of the document.

Despite this omission, your concern appears to be that the statement does not disclose an estimate of expenditures for postage and distribution as set forth in the criteria in computing cost.

While this is an element of the criteria for computing the cost, we do not find that the statute specifies that these elements be set forth separately in the required statement, but mandates only that these three factor "be utilized in computing cost data". We find support for this position in the opinion which you attached to your request, Atty. Gen. OP. No. 90-

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Rep. Emile "Peppi" Bruneau
OPINION 00-378
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437. In that opinion six violations of R.S. 43:31 were set forth which included the failure to
     include the costs of preparation of the public document in its computation of the total cost of publication, and the failure to include in its total cost the publication circulation expense, including estimated expenditure for postage. It was stated therein that "these conclusions are logically necessary because the Bulletin's cost statement alleged that the printing cost was $99.57, and the total cost of publication was $99.57." It was then stated, "Clearly, none of the other statutorily mandated components of total cost were included in this computation."

This office clearly found the criteria components were not included in the cost computation inasmuch as the cost of "printing" was set out as "the total cost". We cannot say that there were similar omissions to the document in question which gives a figure for "total cost" without a designation of the computation.

We note that the number of printings are not stated, but it simply states that 20,000 copies "were published in this printing".

Therefore, we do not find the cost statement is deficient by failing to set forth the criteria separately that must be utilized in reaching the total cost for it followed the language of the statute and stated, "This public document was published at a total cost of $2,750.00." However, there is a failure to name the number of printings, and the purpose of the document such as to disseminate information, both as required by R.S. 43:31.

We hope this sufficiently answers your request.
Sincerely yours,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
Attorney General

By:_____
BARBARA B. RUTLEDGE
Assistant Attorney General
RPI/bbr

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OPINION 00-378
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OPINION 00-378

90-A-1 Public Funds & Contracts
R.S. 43:31
The cost statement of printed matter
must set forth the total cost but not
the criteria that must be utilized to
determine the total cost, name the
number of printings, and purpose of
the document.

Hon. Emile "Peppi" Bruneau
Speaker Pro Tempore
House of Representatives, Dist. 94
P.O. Box 94082
Baton Rouge, LA 70804

Date Received: Sept. 26, 2000
Date Released: October 20, 2000
BARBARA B. RUTLEDGE
Assistant Attorney General