As oft-noted in this space, those in California’s state government — governors, legislators and agency directors — have an unfortunate habit of starting programs and projects that are never fully implemented. These governmental orphans fall roughly into two categories, those that have some valid rationale and those that don’t. For...
Walters: California’s High-Tech FI$Cal Debacle
In 1966, as the United States was wallowing in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, U.S. Sen. George Aiken of Vermont famously suggested that the United States simply “declare victory and get out.” For more than a decade, California’s politicians and bureaucrats have been promising a high-technology system that would...
Walters: Can Newsom Break String of Tech Failures?
For years – many years – journalists and government watchdogs have cataloged an almost unbroken, extremely expensive string of failed attempts to bring information technology into state government operations. Dozens of IT projects have either failed completely or functioned undependably, costing taxpayers countless millions of dollars. The current poster child...
Walters: Can Newsom Finally Fix State's Tech Woes?
California is the global capital of technological innovation, but state officials are much more adept at devising catchy names for their big “information technology” projects than actually implementing them. Take, for instance, something called “BrEZee,” which is supposed to streamline how the state Department of Consumer Affairs licenses countless thousands...