Democratic Rep. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle claimed a victory tonight with the 94-3 vote to pass a bill he thinks will save at least $20 million in state information services outlays this year, and perhaps allow much more in the future.
Carlyle, who describes himself as an entrepreneur in the wireless and software industries, lost a fight last year to derail the state’s $255 million Department of Information Systems’ project to build a new headquarters and data center near the Capitol. He wanted the state to look to the private sector for managing its information systems and take a system-wide look at what the state is spending.
He’s finally moving ahead with the latter.
But whether that is good for state employees or not might be an open question. Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, said he is OK with elements of the billthat try to quantify and control IT spending. But he saw sinister impacts from the rest of the measure, believing it is a step toward outsourcing state technology jobs to firms based in India.
On its face, House Bill 3178 enacts several changes in the way the state manages its more than $1 billion a year spent on information-technology. The bill requires major IT purchases to receive the approval of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget office and sets up what Carlyle calls “an enterprise based strategy.”
Carlyle said that in the end it would lead to many more services purchased from the private sector, forcing the state to be accountable for what technology it buys, what it costs and what options is has for reducing those costs.
But he also said it helps move state government toward “the business of value-added public service delivery.”
Carlyle explained what that means. “I want public employees overseeing the safety of foster kids. I don’t want them watching blinking lights for computer services,” he said.
Carlyle said it is hard in a 60-day session to redesign government, but he thinks his bill — which might save as much as $30 million this year — is one of several this year that move in the direction of reform.
He said one other bill from the Senate is going to break up a 1970s-era “monopoly” that lets community and technical colleges carve up geographic areas. It could require schools to merge programs and look for other activities that are more efficient, just as an enterprise might do, according to Carlyle.
Source:http://www.theolympian.com/2010/03/11/1169676/it-savings-one-mans-reform-anothers.html
