BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
719 (Huff)
Hearing Date: 4/27/2009 Amended: As Introduced
Consultant: Bob Franzoia Policy Vote: G O 11-0
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: SB 719, the Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2009,
would require each state department and agency to develop and
operate a searchable Internet Web site accessible by the public
that includes specified information relating to expenditures of
state funds including contracts, grants, purchase orders,
subcontracts, and tax refunds, rebates, and credits. This bill
would require the development and operation to occur no later
than July 1, 2010.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Internet access to state $700 to $1,000, potentially
significantly General/
fiscal information more initially; $700 to $1,000
potentially various
significantly more annually and
ongoingSpecial
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Generally, this bill would require state entities to incur costs
for the development and maintenance of additional information on
their Web sites. This would involve time and expense to compile
and maintain data that is useable by the public. These costs
would require server hardware equipment, software and a database
server. Procurement for this equipment usually takes three to
four months after a feasibility study review has been approved
and would normally involve an interagency agreement between the
state entity and the Department of Technology Services.
Potential workload and cost impacts to accounting would include
increases in data entry, if new information is required that is
not already in CALSTARS (e.g.) descriptions of purposes of the
expenditures, descriptions of items purchased, or any other
information deemed relevant. Depending on volume and how easily
the information is available, this could require additional
staffing. It is estimated that this would require one project
manager, one database administrator, one programmer, and one
business analyst at a combined one-time cost of $100,000
minimum, per agency, to develop the website to meet the
requirement of the bill. On-going support and maintenance of
software and hardware would increase costs.
Much of the information proposed to be added to state Web sites
is similar to that contained in the Department of General
Services State Contract and Procurement Registration System
(SCPRS). Initial development costs are unknown, but ongoing
costs are approximately $100,000 annually. SCPRS provides data
field information and not access to actual contract documents.
Other preliminary information indicates department costs could
range from as low as $60,000 to $250,000 with ongoing costs
up to $450,000.
Page 2
SB 719 (Huff)
Specific information from the Department of Justice indicates
significant initial costs including a contract for consultant
project management. Implementation presents difficulties as the
department's current accounting system is 30+ years old and does
not integrate with the state's uniform accounting system. (This
is why the department is one of the first departments to be
integrated into FI$CAL, as noted below.) For example, it is
unknown if the data in the department's system will upload into
the new website or if the department would have to write new
programs to allow for the upload. Assuming neither is possible,
contract or grant staff would have to input most of the required
info manually. In addition, legal contract staff would have
added workload. This may require at least 10 new contract /
grant / accounting analysts at a cost of at least $900,000
annually.
In the past, UC and CSU costs have been much higher as the two
systems do not have integrated information technology. For
example, only three of the UC campus systems are integrated. At
CSU, each campus and the Chancellor's Office have its own
database. UC and CSU costs would increase the fiscal impact of
the bill by potentially several million dollars in initial and
ongoing costs.
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is currently receiving
approximately 85 percent of the formally file documents through
its recently initiated e-filing system. In response to
legislation that generally proposed requiring information filed
in rate setting and quasi-legislative proceedings to be Internet
Web site accessible, the PUC estimated the following initial
hardware, software and support costs:
- scanner $30,500
- servers $25,000
- data storage$100,000
- software $15,000
- support $28,300
With ongoing costs, the PUC estimated total costs of $293,000.
Providing access to more diverse information and providing that
information in the manner required by this bill would increase
the ongoing costs. Initial costs would vary by department.
All of what this bill proposes is included in the Financial
Information System for California (FI$Cal), which is a business
transformation project in budgeting, accounting, and
procurement. FI$Cal is a partnership of the Department of
Finance, the State Controller's Office, the State Treasurer's
Office and the Department of General Services. FI$Cal is
intended to prepare the state systems to function in an
integrated financial management system environment.
Staff notes it is unlikely any department would be able to meet
the July 1, 2010 operation date.
This bill is nearly identical in intent to SB 1494 (McClintock)
2008 which was held on the Suspense File.