Her bill vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani is questioning whether California’s FI$Cal project will sideline future policy changes simply because it’s too costly to make programming changes.
In a veto message, Brown last week rejected two state contracting bills because they would “require an expensive modification to FI$Cal at a time when the state must focus its resources on the project’s successful deployment.”
Brown described the bills as well-intentioned and only cited the cost as the reason for his veto.
That didn’t sit well with Galgiani, a Stockton Democrat who had sought to open up state contracts to more small businesses.
"I think this veto raises a much larger concern over FI$Cal's inability to economically adapt, and as a result, impacting or limiting public policy in such an extraordinary way,” Galgiani said in a statement to Techwire. “Making simple changes to our state's computer system, on the face of it, shouldn't be so costly."
FI$Cal is creating centralized financial platform for the state, streamlining 2,500 legacy financial systems used across more than 120 departments. Approved in 2005, the system was initially projected to cost $1.6 billion but later was revised down to $672 million. The current estimate is about $910 million.
The Department of General Services estimated it would cost between $5.8 million to $7.8 million to modify FI$Cal if Galgiani’s bill became law, according to an analysis by the Department of Finance, which opposed the bill.
Her bill, SB 1176, would have revised the definition of a small business and microbusiness, as well as made eligible more small businesses for public works contracts.
Meanwhile, modifying the system functionality of FI$Cal to accommodate a bill by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, would cost between $5.5 million and $7.5 million, according to an Assembly Appropriations analysis of the bill.
Hancock’s bill, SB 1219, would have created a new procurement preference for so-called “employment social enterprises,” small- and medium-sized businesses that operate as nonprofit or for-profit businesses. Employers who hired disadvantaged youth and people with prior convictions or other barriers would have been given the same bidding advantages as small businesses seeking state and California State University contracts worth $5,000 to $250,000.
Hancock said she too was disappointed with the governor’s veto, adding that “state and local governments are facing formidable challenges in supporting economic stability and security among some of its most vulnerable populations.”
