The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

We have all heard the mantra about how elections matter, especially since last November. Well it is true that for many high visibility issues such as health care, taxes or public borrowing, elections truly do make a difference. However for most government programs, elections really make very little difference.

For hundreds of programs within the bowels of the state and federal agencies the wheels of government churn on without a hint of slowing down, speeding up or changing direction. The electorate would be astonished to learn that most of that enormous enterprise called government falls into this category.

A good example of this is the information technology. Recently the Associated Press reported that a legislative body with the auspicious title of the Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology has yet to meet because the Speaker of the Assembly, Mike Sheridan, has not seen fit to appoint any members to the committee. This has left the five state senators appointed by Senator Decker sitting high and dry. A joint committee needs members from both houses. It also means that all of those IT projects in state government continue on just as before.

Caught off guard by the news story, the spokesperson for the Speaker (can state government really plead poverty when the Speaker is able to keep a full-time flack on the payroll?) explained that her boss needs more time to figure out what the committee should be doing.

The idea of legislative oversight of IT projects grew out of a Legislative Audit Bureau report that set off alarms throughout the Capitol. The LAB identified 184 very expensive projects (totaling nearly $300 million). The report was a page-turner documenting costs spinning out of control, expensive projects that were instantly obsolete, poor planning and numerous cases of delays and overruns. Who could forget the University pulling the plug on a $26 million payroll project they never could get to work? The LAB report got the blood boiling for both Democrats and Republicans. However as time passed the legislative interest became tepid. The once-vigorous resolve to get tough is noticeably sagging and now Speaker Sheridan says he needs even more time to contemplate how to proceed.

Well it has been over two years since that LAB report was issued. In that time state government has no doubt begun dozens of other IT projects, some of which will be successful and some of which will fail. Would legislative oversight have made a difference? More to the point, would a Legislature controlled by Democrats have made a difference? Thanks to the leisurely pace of Speaker Sheridan we will never know. But the next time one of these projects spins out of control we will know who to hold responsible.

-August 12, 2009

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