TRENTON -- A bill some lawmakers and newspaper advocates have described as Republican Gov. Chris Christie's "revenge bill" against the industry he's had a rocky relationship with cleared its first hurdle Thursday with the support of Democratic lawmakers.

Senate and Assembly lawmakers approved the bill (S2855/A4429), which would scrap a state law requiring governments, businesses and individuals to publish legal notices in printed newspapers, in two committee hearings.

Advocates say the measure could save municipalities money. But opponents question the motives behind the bill -- which was pushed by the governor -- and whether it would actually be a cost saver for local governments.

"You wonder why people are losing faith in government," Dave Pringle, campaign director for Clean Water Action, said during testimony to the panel.

Pringle criticized the fast pace the bill was rushed to committee.

"This process is a farce," he said.

The bill's main opponents at the two committee hearings were members of the newspaper industry, who accused lawmakers of not doing their homework.

"Towns are going to have to invest in systems and security," Richard Vezza, editor and publisher of The Star-Ledger, said during public testimony Thursday. "It's not as easy as posting to Facebook."

Vezza cited figures from the New Jersey State League of Municipalities that showed municipalities spent an average of $7,150 in 2015 to pay for legal ads in newspapers. Any savings towns have by not posting in newspapers will be "wiped out" by the cost to hire people and pay for infrastructure for a secure website to post the ads, he said.

"Why did this bill emerge from the governor's office? Why was it fast-tracked?" Vezza asked. "If you're sitting in my position, you have to sit here and ... (believe) this is being done for other reasons other than the public good."

The advocates testified up to 300 newspaper industry jobs are at stake, which could close weekly newspapers that operate with small profit margins and rely on legal ad revenue.

"For weeklies, this bill is an existential threat," said Steve Parker, co-publisher of New Jersey Hills Media Group.

A weekly that operates on less than a 5 percent profit margin being forced to cut legal ads would mean a 15 percent revenue loss, Parker said.

"This bill will be the straw that breaks the camel's back," he said.

State Sen. Samuel Thompson (R-Middlesex), who voted to support the bill (S2855/A4429), pushed back against its opponents. "In my lifetime, I have not read one legal notice."

Vezza promptly responded: "The government's obligation is not to read the legals, it's to post them."

The governor's office said more than $80 million is paid annually by taxpayers and private businesses to publish legal notices. It based its figure off of "an internal tally of a sampling for daily newspapers," but didn't say which newspapers, how many it sampled nor did the office provide any additional documents to support the figure.

Opponents also fired back at the governor's office over their figures, calling them outright incorrect.

The New Jersey Press Association says $20 million is spent annually on the notices -- $8 million by taxpayers through the government and $12 by private corporations. The figures come from a 2010 review, George White, the group's executive director said. He noted there hasn't been a rate increase on legal ads in more than 3 decades.

The NJPA late Wednesday offered a compromise that would reduce fees for government notices by half and increase fees for privately paid notices. But the governor's office issued a statement Thursday rejecting the deal.

In 2015, 147 municipalities in the state paid a total of $1,051,085 in legal ad costs, averaging $7,150 per town, according to the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. The league didn't have full figures because not all of the state's 565 municipalities responded to its survey, the group said.

League officials said they conducted the survey at Christie's request.

The bill cleared the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee following a 3-1 vote. The panel's chairman, Sen. Jim Whelan, is one of the bill's primary sponsors in the Senate.

"We're going to release the bill, ... but we're going to release it without a recommendation," Whelan said.

He said he will continue to hear from opponents and advocates before making a final decision which way to vote on the Senate floor on Monday.

But Sen. Shirley Turner took a firm stand.

"We are hearing this bill on the 225th anniversary of the Bill of Rights ... and I think if we pass this bill today or Monday, we are going to be pouring water on a drowning industry and we will also be defying the Constitution by taking away freedom of the press at a time that we need greater transparency," Turner (D-Mercer) said.

"I've always looked for meaningful ways to cut the cost of government," she said. "(But) I'm not sure that this will indeed provide us with that opportunity because the cost that we will be saving is rather questionable."

The bill then sailed through the Democratic-controlled Assembly Appropriations Committee, whose chairman, Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), called a change that's "inevitable."

"This transition is happening," he said, despite acknowledging he just recently learned legal ads are already posted online by the NJPA.

Officials at NJ Advance Media, which provides content for NJ.com, The Star-Ledger and other affiliated newspapers, said 7 percent of total company revenue now comes from legal advertising. Of that amount, nearly 80 percent is private sources. The rest comes from public sources -- municipal, county and state government agencies.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) say Christie's punitive motives are behind the bill that quietly resurfaced Monday.

Wisniewski, who is a declared 2017 gubernatorial hopeful, called the legislation Christie's "revenge bill."

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.