Wednesday, March 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
SB201 seeks $24.8 million in general fund money and $5.6 million in highway fund money for a list of projects, including the "Year 2000" conversion of all state computer systems.
Instead of scattering computer and other technology requests throughout Miller's spending plan, state Budget Director Perry Comeaux decided to put them all in one bill.
The biggest single requested appropriation is $14.7 million for a financial system that will integrate the state's accounting, budgetary, purchasing and personnel functions.
Comeaux told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee Monday that the proposal includes replacing computer systems now used by the controller's office, the budget office, personnel and purchasing departments with a unified system. The existing systems in those offices are based on programming that is some 20 years old.
But members of the committee said the funding doesn't complete the system and they want information on what the final costs will be before making a commitment.
"The committee needs to know exactly what we will be accomplishing with the $14.7 million this biennium and what will be necessary next biennium," said fiscal analyst Mark Stevens.
Comeaux said part of the problem is trying to get the system up and running before 2000 because many of the systems won't be able to handle calculations involving the year when the year becomes 00.
He said the state hopes to save money by putting in new computers instead of having to pay to convert all those systems to handle the millennium and then replace them with the new computer system.
Even so, the cost of the 2000 conversion will be more than $9.5 million, $2.8 million from general fund money included in SB201.
In the bill, another $500,000 is requested for a business process re-engineering study of functions and procedures in the state Taxation Department, and $275,197 for a similar study in the Medicaid Division.
Another $656,911 would help public libraries in the state get federal dollars to implement a telecommunications network; and a $276,000 appropriation will begin creation of a statewide intranet to exchange information between agencies.
There's also $2.5 million to replace the state's current telephone systems in the Capitol complex with a centralized system, and $5.6 million to upgrade the state's microwave system to digital technology.
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