The Illinois Comptroller's Office is at the most critical juncture of its existence, not only as it relates to how the Office operates, but how it serves state government and the taxpayers of Illinois. We inherited a 22-year-old wasteful and unreliable accounting system, and next spring the manufacturer will no longer service it. Parts for this system are no longer even made.

This is the system that's required to administer the $34 billion-plus enterprise of state government and to process more than 17 million checks each year. Because it has no database, all of our tracking of state spending is done by hand. We are forced by a 5-year- old contract to keep three technicians on site at a cost of $360,000 each year just to keep the old and overburdened system running.

Next spring, that service option is gone. A "crash" would send not only this office, but all of state government into chaos, as we would be forced to write checks and perform all other bookkeeping functions by hand.

I have no choice but to move forward to replace this antique. The fact that we did not receive the funding we requested from the General Assembly does not alter reality. The need has not gone away. A modern system will not only remove the daily risk we live with, but will bring Illinois in line with the rest of the states which have moved up in technological capability.

The database in the new system will allow us to extract and analyze data quickly and to easily produce a "snapshot" of spending at any time. It would allow state budgets to be built on real numbers that reflect real spending, rather than the projections the Governor and General Assembly are now forced to use.

Good, timely, detailed information is scary to some in government. And good decisions are not always politically popular. This is the right thing to do. It's time for Illinois taxpayers to get the benefits afforded to taxpayers in every other state in this country - a modern accounting system that lets us clearly know what we are getting for our tax dollars.

Due to funding pressures, we have reduced the scope of the project for next year by $3 million to $5.1 million. It will be paid for by competitive, private vendor financing and savings achieved in our Office through internal efficiencies.

The need for the new system is clear. However, we envision the new internal solution as the first phase of our long-term goal to deliver SAMS (Statewide Accounting Management System), a single, unified financial management system for all of state government.

The new accounting system would replace the current 85 redundant systems we have now, saving hundreds of millions of tax dollars which then could be applied to more pressing needs, such as education funding, new prisons or highway repair.

Taxpayers will be glad to hear that the new system avoids the multi-million dollar cost of retro-fitting and converting the old system to accommodate the calendar change in the Year 2000.

The conversion problem faced by every state agency carries a price tag that will grow by millions each year as the turn of the century draws closer. Our establishment of a new system gives state agencies another option. They can choose to use our system to avoid the costs of year 2000 conversions for each of the 85 separate accounting systems in state government.

As the state's Chief Fiscal Officer, I want you to know that our commitment to solving this most basic of challenges to the state's fiscal infrastructure is as strong today as it was last year. The taxpayers of Illinois deserve no less.

July 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 23