Governors
look to tap technology
02/28/00- Updated 01:41 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's
governors are investing billions of dollars in
technology this year - from registering cars online to
providing seed money for Internet startups - in a
concerted and sometimes frantic effort to tap into the
new economy.
What works and what doesn't remains a
puzzle. Coming together for a weekend devoted to the
challenges of the digital age, the governors rushed to
follow the private sector.
''Government is always the last to
catch up,'' said Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who wants to
spend $1.9 billion on technology in his state over the
next five years. ''If we don't invest now, we're going
to be behind.''
Governors heard from a parade of
software and corporate executives, professors and
commentators at the winter meeting of the National
Governors' Association. Some governors shared stories of
their successes.
''Some get it, some don't,'' said Eric
Schmidt, head of software manufacturer Novell Inc., who
spoke to governors Sunday about technology's place in
global competition. But in a world where ''the fastest
learner wins,'' things can change fast.
In New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman's
state-of-the-state address this year, she proposed $165
million toward technological initiatives from new
training for welfare recipients to Internet incubators
that help launch new companies.
''You can't just let it happen,'' she
said. ''You've got to be driving it.''
She is not alone. Almost all the
governors have laid out spending initiatives emphasizing
new technology. South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges wants
$500,000 to add a chief technology officer to his
cabinet; California Gov. Gray Davis proposed $75 million
for research at public universities to focus on the next
generation of technologies; Ryan's hoped-for $1.9
billion would go to education programs, government
services and venture capital investments.
In part, the spending proposals result
from the booming economy itself and the record revenues
flowing into the states. They also are the governmental
version of Wall Street's fascination with the e-world.
The governors' gathering mixed policy
and how-to lessons: expanding broadband access,
launching state World Wide Web sites, reinventing
postsecondary education, managing the reams of
government information.
One model is Washington state, home to
giant Microsoft and for two years ranked the top
''Digital State'' by the Progress and Freedom Foundation
and No. 4 in the Progressive Policy Institute's ''New
Economy Index.''
Businesses in Washington can calculate
and pay taxes online through a program provided free by
the state. Similar ideas - ranging from taxes to car
registration to social services benefits - are being
considered or put in place nationwide.
''How long will people wait in line at
your driver's license bureau if they can buy the whole
bloody car online?'' New York Times columnist Thomas
Friedman asked the governors. ''If the United States of
America doesn't become as efficient as America Online,
government will become irrelevant.''
Obstacles do remain, particularly the
same questions of privacy and security that recently
plagued the nation's biggest e-businesses. For
government agencies that maintain sensitive personal
information, the question is crucial.
''Some hacker who had a lot of fun
hacking into an e-commerce site (will say) it'll be even
more fun hacking into the police department and posting
the names of all the johns arrested for soliciting a
prostitute,'' said Jeff Eisenach, president of the
Progress and Freedom Foundation, a group that once
helped fund Newt Gingrich's college classes.
Privacy problems weren't ignored, but
economic issues dominated for the governors. Economic
development is a top priority. The issue of taxes on
Internet sales remains unresolved.
The four-day meeting began with a
stern warning: The NGA's report on the new economy
concluded that states must aggressively refashion their
governments if they want to continue to compete.
The NGA chairman, Utah Gov. Michael
Leavitt, laid it out starkly: ''States can fight the
changes and die, accept them and survive, or lead and
prosper.''
TOP
