Approved:       February 19, 2007      

Date

MINUTES OF THE HOUSE GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jim Morrison at 3:30 P.M. on February 14, 2007, in Room 526-S of the Capitol.

All members were present except Representatives Siegfreid, Frownfelter, Tafanelli, and Wilk, all of whom were excused.

Committee staff present:

Julian Efird, Kansas Legislative Research

Tatiana Lin, Kansas Legislative Research

Renae Jefferies, Office of Revisor of Statutes

Gary Deeter, Committee Assistant

Conferees appearing before the committee:

Representative Kasha Kelley

Alan Cobb, Kansas State Director, Americans for Prosperity

Jeff Glendening, Vice President of Political Affairs, Kansas Chamber of Commerce

Duncan Friend, Project Manager, Financial Management System, Division of Information Services and Communications

Others attending:

See attached list.

The minutes for February 12 were approved as corrected. (Motion, Representative Loganbill; second, Representative Sharp)

The Chairman opened the hearing on HB 2457 - the Kansas taxpayer transparency act.

Representative Kasha Kelley spoke to the intent of the bill, saying that the bill requires that receipts and expenditures of state government be made available on a central, keyword-searchable website so the average citizen can access such information; confidential data would be excluded (Attachment 1). She illustrated the need for the bill with the Department on Aging, which, through nutrition grants, provides “friendship meals,” information which exists online, but demands persistence to locate. She commented that transparency begets accountability, without which a citizen’s relationship with government suffers; she noted further that the bill offers an opportunity for Kansas to lead into a new arena of government.

Answering questions, Representative Kelley said a fiscal note was not yet available and that she planned to talk with companies who maintain websites similar to the one proposed by the bill. She replied that the intent of the bill is not to build a specific kind of site or create a new repository, but to make agency information readily available in the most efficient way possible. Responding to another question, staff Renae Jefferies said the bill addresses only expenditures and would need to be amended to include receipts. Representative Kelley replied to another question that the starting date was negotiable as long as it was not an excuse to do less; she acknowledged that an incremental, stair-step project would be sufficient as a beginning. She said the bill envisions aggregating information and that a commercial off-the-shelf approach is acceptable if it makes fiscal sense.

Alan Cobb, Kansas State Director, Americans for Prosperity, emphasized that presently much state information is difficult to obtain (Attachment 2). He cited searching the term “Kansas Debt Service,” which provided him irrelevant data. He tried the term “Kansas government spending,” which brought up nine web pages before getting to a Kansas site, observing that a simple query turned out not to be simple. Responding to questions, Mr. Cobb said INK (Information Network of Kansas [Kansas.gov]) has a search engine which could be modified and that the Kansas budget could use XML rather than PDF format. He replied that information about a person receiving unemployment insurance should be considered confidential. Responding to a member who suggested extending the reach of the bill to local units of government, Mr. Cobb recommended delaying that initiative to another time.

Jeff Glendening, Vice President of Political Affairs, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, expressed concern about one aspect of the bill, saying that new section 2(a)(2)(D) referring to tax credits, if that information were disclosed regarding a business, might put a business at a competitive disadvantage (Attachment 3). A member commented that granting the underlying assumption that what hurts a business should be statutorily exempt creates a slippery slope. Mr. Glendening replied to a question that state tax credits are not presently public information except in aggregate form, even though local tax credits might be public. Another member spoke in support of excluding tax credits from disclosure, especially for a business along a state line, which might be lured to move a business to another state if tax credit information were known.

Duncan Friend, Project Manager, Financial Management System, Division of Information Services and Communications (DISC), commenting on his familiarity with the state’s financial systems and INK, explained that his appearance before the Committee was to offer potential solutions regarding the bill (Attachment 4). He commented on two aspects of the previous discussion, noting the difficulty of finding budget information in state government and the uncertainty of knowing how accurately to reflect what the public wants to know, the latter a problem in creating a query formula or a keyword search engine. He said creating a website to aggregate information was one step; the other step would be to develop a taxonomy and refine it, enabling users to query effectively.

Regarding the current financial accounting and reporting system (STARS), Mr. Friend said the system was severely limited in providing public information. Answering questions, he said STARS is an antiquated legacy system with codes that would not provide detailed information useful to the public. He noted that even state agencies have developed “shadow systems” to accommodate STARS’ inadequacies. Martin Eckhardt, Manager, Central Accounting Services, explained that meeting the requirements of the bill through STARS would mean mountainous manual work for agencies. Mr. Friend said the proposed Financial Management System, even though its original design did not include public reporting, could be modified to do so. Representative Kelley recommended that members find a way to aggregate data other than through STARS. Mr. Friend observed that the federal government is putting up a website on February 15 dealing with the issue: www.federalspending.gov.

Tracy Smith, General Manager for Kansas.gov, and DiAnna Wages, Director of Creative Services, Kansas.gov, appeared before the Committee to respond to members’ questions about a central repository/search engine for state government. Ms. Smith said data across state agencies is available and can be aggregated, although perhaps not immediately. She noted that the crucial issue in building a central repository or central data portal is that agencies have disparate, silo systems that do not communicate with each other; the first requirement would be to create statewide standards to enable all agencies to provide the requested information.

Ms. Smith explained that the other issue in building a searchable website is education; since search-engine optimization is a new arena, few staff are trained to use the tools necessary to accomplish the task.

The Chairman said the bill would be considered for passage at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, February 15, 2007. The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.