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Proposed legislation (HB 188) to impact state's information technology services, employees

BY BRUCE WYNGAARD, OCSEA OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

June 3 , 2005 (updated July 18, 2005) - The Electronic Government Services Act, HB 188 proposes government agencies to privatize e-commerce and related internet services that are currently performed by state and local agencies. The primary thrust of the legislation is to shift the provision of such services to the private sector using the rationale that government “unfairly” competes with the private sector and if the private sector can perform such services the presumption is that it should be contracted out.

OCSEA received an over whelming negative response from our members to essentially the same bill that was introduced last year as HB 482 and HB 185. The origin of the bill is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that has drafted the legislation for the purpose of its introduction in state legislatures. ALEC is sponsored heavily by business and promotes expanding free markets and limiting the size of government. The businesses that would benefit from this legislation have not identified themselves.

The introduction of this legislation is problematic for several reasons.

Internet technologies must be a growing part of how government responds to taxpayer expectations. Whether it be obtaining a state park reservation, obtaining workers compensation or other job benefits via an agency web site or registering for education courses are all examples of what many IT employees do to support the mission of their agency. No sector – public or private – should be automatically considered the proper domain for what is becoming standard operating procedure. Using the same technology to perform such work does not make government in competition with the private sector.

Unfortunately, in Ohio we have many examples of how private sector vendors have wasted tax dollars on IT services. The tens of millions of dollars spent by ODJFS in the internet based job matching program that was scraped because it would not work is just one example of the consequence of relying on private contractors to develop the technology capabilities/needs of the state. The new legislation adds bureaucracy and cost to state operations by requiring agencies to hold public hearings if they want to perform such work. Its definition of e-commerce and transactions completed over a computer network is much too vague and the legislation specifically acknowledges the right of unsuccessful vendors to sue the state if they are not successful. Overall this act is bad public policy.

This legislation could require many of the services currently provided by state agencies to be contracted to vendors who claim they provide similar or related services. Some examples that can be subject to the bill are tax filing services offered by the Department of Taxation, weather and road condition information provided by ODOT, event and service information provided by the Division of Parks – and the list goes on.

These are the kinds of policy issues that will have a significant impact on IT careers in state service and who will be performing government services in the future. It is important that you be informed about these developments and exercise your right to state your point of view.