McSweeney
Defends Column,
Scolds
Warner administration
Editor's
note: Last edition, Patrick McSweeney chided the
Warner administration for failing to provide
information to the House of Delegates regarding
anticipated savings from IT reform. ("Time
to Come Clean," March 29, 2004.) Elsewhere
in this
issue, Deputy Secretary of Technology Eugene Huang
rebuts McSweeney's charges ("IT
Savings Are Coming," April 12, 2004).
McSweeney
responds to Huang as follows:
Now
I understand why we need a secretary of technology,
a deputy secretary of technology and a director of
the Virginia Information Technology Agency (with a
$175,000 a year salary).
To respond to my op-ed.
What
Mr. Huang cleverly omits is the reporting
requirements of House
Resolution 12 and House
Resolution 13, calling on the Governor and all
executive agencies to provide information to the
House of Delegates concerning potential cost
savings. To
date, there has been no response to either
resolution. The administration has
time to respond to me but refuses to answer the
inquiries of a coordinate branch of government.
H.R. 12 and 13 were prompted by the lack of
responsiveness in the documents Mr. Huang refers to.
Legislators
have a right to know about the IT reorganization and
potential for cost savings in detail.
Unfortunately, the only way for legislators
to obtain such information without adding expensive,
duplicative staff of their own is to request it from
the Warner administration.
Obviously, the administration has decided to
continue playing hide the pea.
If
the state can ultimately realize $100 million a
year in IT savings and another $900 million in
savings in other areas covered by the Wilder
Commission recommendations (as Gov. Mark R. Warner
acknowledged last year), this should be considered
in determining the need for a tax hike, which
continues indefinitely. Will we need an extra $1
billion in revenues after the savings are effected?
I don't think so.
--
April 12, 2004
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